WS-Reliability is a specification for open, reliable Web services messaging-including guaranteed delivery, duplicate message elimination and message ordering?enabling reliable communication between Web services. The reliability features are based on extensions to the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP), rather than being tied to the underlying transport protocol. The specification will allow a variety of systems to interoperate reliably in a platform- and vendor-neutral manner. Following collaboration on the specification draft, the companies plan to submit WS-Reliability to a standards body on a royalty-free basis.

"We are pleased to take this step toward standardizing one of the key technologies for Web Services, which will leverage our experience in providing high-reliability, mission critical enterprise systems," said Yasushi Ishida, General Manager of Strategy and Technology Division, Software Group for Fujitsu Limited. "We have been working to create and promote open, royalty-free standards for Reliable Messaging with the various standards bodies for years. This cooperative WS-Reliability effort is a significant step for Web Services standardization, and we are proud to be playing a leadership role through our donation of the early draft specification."

"Reliability is a critical factor to the widespread adoption and deployment of Web services. We believe WS-Reliability will ensure the promise of Web Services for business customers," said Kiyoshi Kozuka, Executive General Manager of Software Division, Hitachi, Ltd. "We are excited to have this opportunity to contribute our technologies based on extensive experience with developing mission-critical systems that demand the highest reliability."

"We are convinced that WS-Reliability will play a crucial role in making Web Services more dependable and bringing them to the real world mission critical enterprise systems," said Yutaka Kasahara, General Manager of Internet Solution Division, NEC Corporation. "Our rich experience in developing a variety of high-availability systems makes NEC confident that we are very well positioned to provide mission critical systems also in the Web Services era."

"Open-standards-based reliability is essential for Web services to meet real-world business needs," said Don Deutsch, Vice president of Standards Strategy and Architecture for Oracle Corporation. "WS-Reliability is an important step in defining a solid infrastructure for Web services and Oracle is pleased to contribute its enterprise software expertise to this effort."

"The WS-Reliability specification will provide the framework to help make Web services a truly enterprise-capable standard for integration within and between companies," said Gordon Van Huizen, vice president of product management for Sonic Software. "Reliable e-business communications has been Sonic's core business for years and we share a deep commitment to addressing the challenges of integration across mission critical deployments in a standards-based way."

"Sun is very pleased to be part of this effort to define a true standards-based approach to reliable Web services messaging. The combined expertise of the companies developing this specification is truly impressive and we expect WS-Reliability to be widely adopted," said Mark Bauhaus, vice president of Sun ONE Java Web services at Sun Microsystems. "This specification provides a solution that allows companies to deploy Web services with confidence, enabling a level of messaging reliability suitable for just about any business application."

The WS-Reliability specification working draft is available royalty free for download from each co-editor's Web site:

Fujitsu	http://xml.fujitsu.com/en/about/ws_r.html
Hitachi	http://www.hitachi.co.jp/soft/wsrm/
NEC	http://www.nec.co.jp/press/ja/0301/WS-ReliabilityV1.0Public.zip
Oracle	http://otn.oracle.com/tech/webservices/htdocs/spec/ws-reliability.html
Sonic Software	http://www.sonicsoftware.com/wsreliability
Sun Microsystems	http://sunonedev.sun.com/platform/technologies/technologies_mv.html

About Fujitsu Limited
Fujitsu is a leading provider of customer-focused IT and communications solutions for the global marketplace. Pace-setting technologies, high-reliability/performance computing and telecommunications platforms, and a worldwide corps of systems and services experts make Fujitsu uniquely positioned to unleash the infinite possibilities of the broadband Internet to help its customers succeed. Headquartered in Tokyo, Fujitsu Limited (TSE:6702) reported consolidated revenues of 5 trillion yen (about US$38 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2002. For more information, please see: http://www.fujitsu.com/.

About Hitachi Limited
Hitachi, Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is one of the world's leading global electronics companies, with fiscal 2001 (ended March 31, 2002) consolidated sales of 7,993.7 billion yen ($60.1 billion*). The company manufactures and markets a wide range of products, including computers, semiconductors, consumer products and power and industrial equipment. For more information on Hitachi, Ltd., please visit Hitachi's Web site at http://global.hitachi.com. *At an exchange rate of 133 yen to the dollar.

About NEC Corporation
NEC Corporation (Nasdaq: NIPNY; FTSE: 6701q.l; TSE: 6701) is one of the world's leading providers of broadband network and mobile Internet solutions dedicated to meeting the specialized needs of its diverse and global base of customers. Ranked as a Global Fortune 500R company and one of the world's top patent-producing companies, the NEC group delivers tailored solutions in the core technologies and services required in a networked world, ranging from advanced semiconductors solutions, to high-speed, large-capacity, mission-critical systems, system integration, and broadband and mobile technologies. The NEC group employs more than 140,000 people worldwide and had net sales of approximately $39 billion in the fiscal year ended March 2002. For additional information, please visit the NEC home page at http://www.nec.com.

About Oracle Corp.
Oracle is the world's largest enterprise software company. For more information about Oracle, visit our Web site at www.oracle.com.

About Sonic Software Corporation
Sonic Software enables reliable interoperability of software applications within and across enterprises based on Web services and Internet messaging standards. Sonic products provide advanced security capabilities, unmatched performance and scalability, and guaranteed delivery of mission-critical information.

Sonic is the world's fastest growing Internet middleware company and counts leaders in financial services, energy, telecommunications and manufacturing among its over 500 customers. Sonic is an independent operating company of Progress Software Corporation (NASDAQ: PRGS), a $250+ million software industry leader with customers in over 100 countries. Headquartered in Bedford, Mass., Sonic Software can be reached on the Web at sonicsoftware.com or at +1-781-999-7000 or 1-866-GET-SONIC.

About Sun Microsystems
Since its inception in 1982, a singular vision -- "The Network Is The Computer[tm]" -- has propelled Sun Microsystems, Inc. (Nasdaq:SUNW) to its position as a leading provider of industrial-strength hardware, software and services that make the Net work. Sun can be found in more than 100 countries and on the World Wide Web at http://www.sun.com.

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