Office of the General Manager
IBM Information Management
Route 100
Somers, NY 10589

February 5, 2007

Dear IBM U2 Business Partners and Customers,

I am writing to provide you with an update on IBM’s strategic direction for the U2 portfolio. IBM remains committed to the U2 platform, and we’re backing up that commitment through increased investment to support and enhance the U2 software portfolio as technology evolves. We are basing this investment on the positive feedback we have received from U2 end users, our business partners, and the analyst community.

To prove this commitment, we released UniVerse 10.2, SystemBuilder 5.4, and U2 Web Development Environment 4.3 (formerly RedBack) last year. We also delivered a Web services development environment for both UniData and UniVerse. We have built superior feature and function enhancements into all of the U2 products.

Delivering high quality IT services is harder today than ever, requiring development and management of highly complex systems. IBM is simplifying this task for our U2 customers by providing a broad spectrum of industry-leading business integration, systems management, collaboration, application development and information management software that is integrated with U2 products. The IBM U2 R&D team is also leveraging other leading edge technologies, such as the Eclipse open-source, Java-based extensible development framework for our new administration, mapping and development tools.

The current U2 enhancement plan outlines product strategy through the year 2012. Looking at a five-year view is consistent with other IBM software products. This plan includes work on the future versions of UniData and UniVerse and the associated tools products. Our recent data server releases, focused on interoperability and Web services, offer the technology required to participate in the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) that enables an On Demand business. For more information and details on UniData, UniVerse and associated tools, please visit our website at http://www.ibm.com/software/u2.

IBM’s depth of innovation, superior service and support, solutions integration, adherence to standards, strong business partnerships and solution value remain unequaled. I am personally committed to the success of your business and to delivering the best available technology to support your current investments.
Thank you for continuing to work with IBM. We will keep working hard to deliver strong business value through our innovative U2 technologies.

Sincerely,

Ambuj Goyal
General Manager, Information Management Software
IBM Software Group