Sun-Netscape Alliance Announces iPlanet Commerce Integration Suite for Building Online Trading Communities that Leverage Existing Systems Cross-Company

MOUNTAINVIEW, Calif. (August 30, 1999) - The Sun-Netscape Alliance [Alliance] today unveiled iPlanet Commerce Integration Suite, a new suite of e-commerce application and server software that enables companies to build and deploy online trading communities that tie together customers, partners and suppliers and leverage existing systems internally and cross corporate boundaries. The Sun-Netscape Alliance also announced Netscape Application Server - Process Automation Edition for automating cross-company business processes and Netscape ECXpert 3.0, an upgrade to the Allianceís leading commerce exchange application. These new solutions, in addition to existing integration solutions built on Netscape Application Server and Netscape Directory Server, bring integration to the next level by enabling companies to leverage their existing applications, transact business with their customers, partners and suppliers, and automate and manage cross-company processes in the Net Economy.

The Sun-Netscape Alliance also announced today a broad range of industry adoption and support for its Net Economy integration solutions. Over 40 percent of the Fortune 100 use Alliance e-commerce applications and Internet infrastructure software to leverage their existing systems and power their Internet businesses, as well as build trading communities that tie together their customers, partners and suppliers. In addition, five of the top 10 banks and eight of the top 10 telecommunications companies use Alliance software to integrate their businesses in the Net Economy. Companies such as AOL, AXA Sun Life, FranceTelecom, GTE, MCI, Sabre, Singapore NETS, and Tirea are using Sun-Netscape Alliance software to move their existing business processes online to meet the demands of customers, partners and suppliers.

"Companies today are looking to the Sun-Netscape Alliance to build trading communities that leverage their internal assets, as well as move their processes online and connect to their partners, suppliers and customers," said Steve Savignano, senior vice president and general manager for the Sun-Netscape Alliance e-commerce division. "The success of our customers provides powerful evidence of the vast benefits and potential for the Sun-Netscape Allianceís offering for integration in the Net Economy."

The Sun-Netscape Alliance provides a comprehensive, fully integrated portfolio of products to meet the requirements for integration in the Net Economy. It includes broad support for extensible mark-up language (XML) for cross-company business exchange, and the Java 2 Enterprise Edition development environment, specifically Java Messaging Services (JMS), a unified user management and Internet level security, and a high performance and scalable integration environment.

The new iPlanet Commerce Integration Suite provides customers with a complete solution to build and deploy e-commerce applications that tightly integrate with internal applications and external trading communities. The solutions provides companies with the ability to automate manual cross-company business processes with customers, build collaborative business processes with customers and partners, connect to low-tech trading partners and leverage existing assets and data. The solution leverages the power of Netscape Application Server for building scalable applications that integrate with existing applications, Netscape ECXpert for managing cross-company integration and Netscape Directory Server for user management and access control. iPlanet Commerce Integration Suite provides out of the box integration with enterprise systems (including Tuxedo, MQSeries, CICS and IMS), enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications and as well as tools for integrating with custom applications. It provides broad support for communications protocols such as XML, hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), file transfer protocol (FTP), Electronic Data Interchange-Internet Integration, (EDIINT) and Odette File Transfer Protocol (OFTP).

Netscape Application Server - Process Automation Edition is a new product focused on process integration and management. It enables companies to develop, deploy, manage and integrate mission-critical business processes over the Internet. Built on top of Netscape Application Server, it offers high availability and scalability and integrates with ERP applications, mainframes and custom applications. With Netscape Application Server - Process Automation Edition, customers, partners, employees and business applications can be tied together to form new cross-company business processes.

Providing broad support for XML, Netscape ECXpert 3.0 is the latest release of the Sun-Netscape Alliances leading application for Internet commerce exchange. Netscape ECXpert enables companies to automate and manage cross-company business processes over the Internet as well as existing private networks. The product gives companies the ability to securely and reliably exchange business-critical transactions, such as purchase orders, invoices and forecasts, and automatically process those transactions using existing systems.

Pricing and Availability
iPlanet Commerce Integration Suite and Netscape Application Server: Process Automation Edition are expected to be available in November 1999. iPlanet Commerce Integration Suite is priced at $115,000 per computer processing unit (CPU) and Netscape Application Server: Process Automation Edition is priced at $125,000 per CPU. ECXpert 3.0 is available now and is priced at $75,000 per two CPU.

About the Sun-Netscape Alliance
America Online, Inc. and Sun Microsystems, Inc. formed the Sun-Netscape Alliance to provide easy to deploy, comprehensive enterprise and e-commerce solutions to business partners and other companies competing in today's Net Economy. The Alliance product portfolio provides customers with the industry's most scalable, integrated infrastructure software and a family of production ready e-commerce applications. The products are offered on the industry's most widely available product platforms, including DEC, HP, IBM, Linux, SGI, Microsoft Windows, and Sun. The alliance software product portfolio includes: messaging and calendar, collaboration, web, application, directory, and certificate servers. The Alliance also offers a family of production-ready applications for e-commerce, including commerce exchange, procurement, selling, and billing.

About America Online, Inc
Founded in 1985, America Online, Inc., based in Dulles, Virginia, is the world's leader in interactive services, Web brands, Internet technologies, and e-commerce services. America Online, Inc. operates: two worldwide Internet services, America Online, with more than 18 million members, and CompuServe, with approximately 2 million members; several leading Internet brands including ICQ and Digital City, Inc.; the Netscape Netcenter and AOL.COM portals; and the Netscape Navigator and Communicator browsers. Through its strategic alliance with Sun Microsystems, the Company develops and offers easy-to-deploy, end-to-end e-commerce and enterprise solutions for companies operating in the Net Economy.

About Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision, "The Network is The Computer," has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. [NASDQ: SUNW] to its position as a leading provider of high quality hardware, software and services for establishing enterprise-wide intranets and expanding the power of the Internet. With more than $11 billion in annual revenues, Sun can be found in more than 150 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://www.sun.com.

Netscape, Netscape Navigator and the Netscape N logo are registered trademarks of Netscape Communications Corporation, a subsidiary of America Online, Inc., in the United States and other countries. Sun, Sun Microsystems, the Sun Logo, iPlanet, Java and "The Network is The Computer" are trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc. in the United States and other countries.