Oracle and Zend Announce General Availability of Zend Core for Oracle

CUPERTINO, Calif. and REDWOOD SHORES, Calif., Oct. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) and Zend Technologies, Inc., the PHP company, today announced the general availability of Zend Core for Oracle for IBM AIX, Linux and Sun Solaris, and the beta version of Zend Core for Oracle for the Windows platform. These versions are available as free downloads from the Oracle Technology Network (OTN) web site and from Zend's web site.

Since its beta debut on August 29, 2005, over 1,200 developers have downloaded Zend Core for Oracle to build mission-critical, PHP-based web applications and experienced increased productivity along with high reliability, security and performance due to tight integration with Oracle(R) Database.

Zend Core for Oracle delivers a fully tested and supported environment that enables developers to get up and running in minutes with Zend's supported PHP with an Oracle infrastructure. Zend Core for Oracle also delivers an updated PHP "OCI8" driver, the interface used by PHP developers to connect with the Oracle Database, and provides enhanced reliability, stability and performance for Oracle Database-driven web applications.

Zend provides support for Zend Core for Oracle via the Zend Network, a comprehensive service and support system delivering enterprise-quality updates and support to PHP developers. Zend Core for Oracle is also compatible with existing Zend products such as Zend Platform and Zend Studio.

"We are encouraged and excited to see a tremendously positive response from the PHP developer community for Zend Core for Oracle," said Michael Hichwa, vice president of database tools, Oracle. "Zend Core for Oracle delivers increased web application performance and reliability using Oracle Database as a comprehensive, easy to develop and deploy infrastructure. We anticipate an increasing percentage of the PHP developers will take advantage of Oracle and Zend's efforts to support their database-driven applications."

Leading enterprises already experiencing the benefits of the beta version of Zend Core for Oracle include StepUp Commerce and SugarCRM: "The StepUp Commerce local shopping service exposes local inventory information from retailers of all sizes to consumers wherever they are browsing products online", said Mike Bertrand, Chief Technology Officer for StepUp Commerce. "The Zend Core for Oracle GA release represents a solid platform upon which we can rapidly expand our offerings. The combination of PHP and the Oracle database, certified and supported by Zend and Oracle, gives us the flexibility and scalability we need to confidently serve consumers and retailers with a strong, differentiated online presence."

"We are excited to see the general availability of Zend Core for Oracle, a combined stack which will improve the integration between PHP and Oracle, simplify the installation process, and will facilitate the use of our leading open source customer relationship management application running on an Oracle infrastructure," said Jacob Taylor, CTO at SugarCRM. "Zend Core for Oracle is an important milestone and provides a much needed PHP certification for the Oracle database."

Oracle and Zend have also introduced a beta version of Zend Core for Oracle that will run on a Windows(R) environment including Windows XP Professional, Windows 2000 and Windows 2003. This product enables developers to easily run PHP web applications with Oracle Database on the Windows platform. Oracle offers a downloadable beta version of this product from OTN at http://www.oracle.com/technology/tech/php/index.html . Zend Core for Oracle is also available for download at the Zend site: http://www.zend.com/core/oracle/ .

"The widespread adoption and evidenced success of the Zend Core for Oracle beta product underscores the increased efficiencies this environment offers," said Doron Gerstel, president and CEO of Zend Technologies. "We are proud to offer a generally available version of Zend Core for Oracle on Linux and UNIX, and we look forward to further supporting the PHP community with our version adapted for Windows environments." About Oracle

Oracle is the world's largest enterprise software company. For more information about Oracle, visit our Web site at http://www.oracle.com . About Zend Technologies, Inc.

Zend Technologies, Inc., the PHP company, is the leading provider of products and services for developing, deploying and managing business-critical PHP applications. Zend's founders are the architects of PHP, which is used by more than twenty-two million Web sites and has quickly become the most popular language for building dynamic web applications. Deployed at more than 10,000 companies worldwide, the Zend family of products is a comprehensive platform for supporting the entire lifecycle of PHP applications. Zend, headquartered in Cupertino, California, is privately held and venture funded with investments from Azure, Index, Intel Capital, Platinum, SAP Ventures and Walden Israel. For more information, please visit http://www.zend.com, or call 1-408-253-8800. Trademarks

Oracle, JD Edwards, and PeopleSoft are registered trademarks of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners. The following is intended to outline our general product direction. It is intended for information purposes only, and may not be incorporated into any contract. It is not a commitment to deliver any material, code, or functionality, and should not be relied upon in making purchasing decision. The development, release, and timing of any features or functionality described for Oracle's products remains at the sole discretion of Oracle.