4D v6.7: One third the TCO of other web databases

May 24, 2001. San Jose, CA.

4D, Inc., publishers of the 4th Dimension v6.7 RAD/RDBMS Environment and WebSTAR Server Suite 4, reported today the immediate availability of an Aberdeen Group Report regarding the Cost of Ownership of 4D Embedded Databases citing 4D as "…clearly superior with respect to the industry average".

The Aberdeen Report titled "4D Embedded Database Cost of Ownership Study, An Executive White Paper" examines the cost of ownership of 4D version 6.7 as an embedded database and compares it to the industry average. The report focuses on the embedded databases employed by small to medium sized businesses and those workgroups/departments found within larger businesses. Rather than consider conventional total cost of ownership (TCO) assessment, the Aberdeen Group considered a more real-world and very accurate assessment called "visible cost of ownership" (VCO) which reports findings closely aligned with true user experience.

The report finds that for Internet embedded databases, 4D v6.7's VCO is approximately 1/3 of the industry average and cites, "In all configurations, under conservative assumptions, 4D Software's 4D v6.7 shows marked superiority in VCO over the industry average."

The study also concluded "4D development tools beat the industry average in price across all configurations under conservative assumptions, reflecting 4D's traditional emphasis on supporting partners in both the Windows and Macintosh developer communities."

" We are delighted that an esteemed consulting company as the Aberdeen Group confirmed what our customers have been saying for years," stated Brendan Coveney, president and CEO, 4D, Inc. "Their findings highlight the absolute advantages of 4D technology - low cost of ownership delivering powerful and flexible solutions."

This report can be viewed and downloaded at: http://www.4d.com/tco/

About 4D v6.7.x

4D Version 6.7 offers application developers a truly standard-setting, professional suite of application and web development tools for both Windows and Mac. Meticulously engineered, 4D Version 6.7 builds upon an award-winning legacy of over fifteen years of relational database and rapid application development expertise providing unprecedented ease and flexibility. The rich development and multi-threaded environment is immediately realized yielding gratifying results through the efficiency of code-conserving components and dynamic form creation. 4D Version 6.7 boasts new and mature web technology along with important and riveting GUI enhancement. For those new to 4D and for the established 4D developer, Version 6.7 offers the most compelling development environment on the market. Here are a few of the new features in the 4D v6.7.x product line: HTML 4.0 and CSS1, SSL, Full CGI Support, XML, WML, Form Inheritance, dynamic forms, components, theme support, all-new 4D Tools, automatic transportation and many new commands.

For more information on 4D v6.7.x visit http://www.4D.com/67

Download the PDF version of this press release.

About 4D, Inc.

Located in San Jose, California, 4D Inc. is the US distributor of 4th Dimension and the 4D family of products, which has set the relational database standard for over fifteen years. 4D Inc., formerly 4D, Inc., publishes a tightly integrated suite of professional, cross-platform web-embedded development tools. 4D Inc is a 100 percent owned subsidiary of 4D SA, formerly ACI SA. StarNine Technologies is a 100 percent subsidiary of 4D, Inc. StarNine publishes the award winning WebSTAR Server Suite 4.2, a complete set of four high-performance servers in one easy to use application.

The URL for our new location on the web is: http://www.4D.com/