NuSphere, Progress Software, & MySQL

Some Snapshots from the NuSphere/Progress Software/MySQL Time Capsule

Here are a few "historic" press releases detailing Progress Software's initial involvment with MySQL.

PROGRESS SOFTWARE ANNOUNCES NUSPHERE -- A NEW COMPANY TO SUPPORT LEADING OPEN SOURCE DATABASE

NuSphere becomes first major global company to provide commercial services for the market-leading open source MySQL database

BEDFORD, Mass. — June 28, 2000 Progress Software Corporation (NASDAQ: PRGS), a leading supplier of application development, deployment and management products and services, today announced the formation of NuSphere, a Progress Software Company dedicated to supporting the MySQL open source database. NuSphere is the first company supported by a major global software vendor to provide professional services for the MySQL database.

NuSphere leverages parent company Progress Software’s strong database and technical support expertise into the rapidly growing open source database marketplace. NuSphere will create NuSphere MySQLÔ, a multi-platform integrated distribution of MySQL and related open source products. As a single, global source of integrated services for MySQL, NuSphere will provide support from three main centers in the U.S., the Netherlands and Australia. Developers, IT professionals and database administrators can visit www.nusphere.com for further information.

“We believe that the open source software development model can bring many benefits to developers and end users. With NuSphere, we’ll continue a leadership role in the software industry by offering services and expertise to the fast-growing open source community,” said Joseph Alsop, President of Progress Software, “We’re creating an entirely new company because we believe the open source model of peer review and co-development requires a radically new business model and a different approach. NuSphere will be able to focus its resources and personnel on bringing new open source services and products to market quickly.”

"Open source solutions are built upon many types of software, not just an operating environment," said Dan Kusnetzky, Vice President of System Software Research for IDC. "Organizations interested in building solutions often find that they must search far and wide to find all of the needed components, such as Linux, MySQL, Perl, etc., and required professional services and support. With the announcement of NuSphere, a company formed to address such needs of the open source community, Progress Software is clearly thinking beyond the operating system to the total solution."

The NuSphere executive team is led by D. Britton Johnston, Vice President for Development and Marketing at NuSphere, and by Patrick Lannigan, as Vice President of Operations and Business Development at NuSphere. Mr. Johnston has 21 years experience with database s ystems and has been involved in leading the development of several major commercial relational database products. Mr. Lannigan has 20 years experience with a variety of software companies and has been tracking the evolution of the open source marketplace since 1996.