JBoss®, Inc., the Professional Open Source company, today introduced the Hibernate® Solution Certification Program, designed to optimise performance between the company's standard-setting object/relational mapping (ORM) technology and open source and commercial databases and database connectivity software. The first two products to complete the rigorous 1,200 tests in the Hibernate Certification Toolkit are the Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) Driver and DataDirect Technologies' Connect for JDBC.

"As Hibernate continues to consolidate the Java ORM market, it is increasingly being used by Java customers running Microsoft SQL Server," said Bill Hilf, Director of Technical Platform Strategy at Microsoft Corporation. "Completing this certification is an important step in our collaboration to optimise JEMS (JBoss Enterprise Middleware Suite) on the Windows platform."

As the first partner to complete certification and put the Hibernate Certification Toolkit to the test, Microsoft played a critical role in refining the program's methodology and tests. The SQL Server 2005 JDBC Driver, available as a free, redistributable download, includes improved performance, security and support features for all data types.

With this certification, DataDirect becomes the first JBoss partner to be certified on both Hibernate and the JBoss Application Server. John Goodson, vice president of product operations, DataDirect Technologies, commented: "As the industry leader in standards-based data connectivity software, DataDirect supports the widest range of databases and data access technologies. With its wide usage, Hibernate is an important ORM solution for us to support. Certifying Connect for JDBC on Hibernate will offer our customers greater choices when it comes to enhancing their data environment."

Hibernate brought Java ORM to the mass market and ranks as one of the most widely used persistence solutions. Hibernate has also deeply influenced the design, architecture and philosophy of the Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) 3.0 specification, which is aimed at simplifying Enterprise Java development.

"Through the Hibernate Solution Certification Program, we're offering a standardised framework for testing performance and compatibility with leading data connectivity software," said Shaun Connolly, vice president of product management, JBoss, Inc. "This program, with valuable input from Microsoft and DataDirect, offers enterprises a critical quality check and enhanced choice when looking for data connectivity solutions to pair with Hibernate."

The Hibernate Solution Certification Program is available for JBoss partners. Visit http://www.jboss.com/partners/solutions for more information on how to join this program.

About JBoss, Inc.
JBoss, Inc., the global leader in open source middleware, offers simply the better way to transform businesses through a service-oriented architecture (SOA). As the market's leading open source platform for SOA, JEMS (JBoss Enterprise Middleware Suite) delivers proven performance in mission-critical environments and is backed by world-class support and service-all at a dramatically lower cost structure than proprietary systems. Fortune 500 companies such as Continental Airlines, MCI and Starwood Hotels & Resorts rely on Professional Open Source from JBoss, Inc. Certified partners offering JEMS and JBoss Subscriptions include Dell, HP, NEC, Novell, Sun Microsystems and Unisys. For more information, visit http://www.jboss.com.

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