Ascential Software Outlines Technology Direction for the Future of Pervasive, On Demand Data Integration

Expands Ascential Enterprise Integration Suite; Customers Validate Technology Direction

ASCENTIAL WORLD 2003, MIAMI, October 29, 2003 — Ascential Software Corporation (Nasdaq: ASCL), unveiled its strategic product development plans for the next 24 months to capitalize on emerging technologies, meet evolving enterprise data integration requirements and "future-proof" information technology investments. Customers and partners can expect 64-bit computing and expanded grid-enabled capabilities, continued innovations in support for service-oriented architecture, and new functionality for radio frequency identification (RFID), among others. Ascential Software also announced the general availability of Ascential DataStage TX™ and its incorporation into the Ascential™ Enterprise Integration Suite.

The company confirmed the value of and alignment between Ascential Software's plans and the enterprise integration requirements of customers and partners through a series of planning sessions and surveys. "The product direction that Ascential Software outlined maps directly to what the marketplace is telling us it needs in an enterprise-wide data integration environment," said Sandra Rogers, director, Web Services and Integration Software, IDC. "Ascential's strategy to partner and provide open technology based on industry standards that interface with other essential integration software is critical in today's evolving system and services-based architectural landscape."

Timely access to accurate corporate data is critical in today's business environment. Complete, integrated data gives business the visibility to make strategic decisions today and insight for the future. Bob Zurek, Ascential Software vice president of advanced technologies and product management, underscored the significance of today's announcement by pointing out that integrating applications and business processes requires a data integration platform that functions across the full spectrum of current and future transactional, operational, and analytical application environments.

"Customers want a complete enterprise data integration platform to support strategic business requirements. Ascential Software is the only complete solution that satisfies all enterprise integration requirements, enabling our customers to meet challenges and create business opportunities," said Zurek. "We are committed to delivering exceptional return on investment by focusing exclusively on data integration, taking an active role in standards bodies, investing in research and development, and closely collaborating with our customers and partners."

Product Roadmap
Ascential Software unveiled three strategic product initiatives, code-named Trinity, Hawk, and Rhapsody. The results of these development projects are anticipated to be in the market as soon as the first half of 2004. These product releases will expand Ascential Software's leadership in providing enterprise solutions designed to enable customers to build an integrated view of data for more effective business analytics and decision support, enable the interoperability of multiple applications for a higher level of customer service and operational performance, and reduce the number of data sources that IT personnel need to understand in order to develop new applications. Further, the product releases are designed to improve development efficiencies, dramatically reduce the complexity of integrating new and legacy systems and help manage the exponential growth of data to meet user requirements for immediate access to information.

• "Trinity" - Anticipated completion mid 2004.
  Trinity highlights include:
  • Expanded service-oriented architecture capabilities
  • 64-bit performance and expanded mainframe support
  • Increased functionality for enterprise grid computing initiatives
  • "Frictionless connectivity" - eliminating barriers to connectivity inside and outside the enterprise
• "Hawk" - Expected delivery late 2004.
  Hawk highlights include:
  • User interface innovations for enhanced productivity
  • RFID infrastructure support
  • "Next generation" meta data services infrastructure
• "Rhapsody" - Next generation platform that will deliver a quantum leap in productivity, manageability and scalability.

Jeff Turner, engagement director, Pinnacle Technical Resources, Inc., an enterprise systems architecture consulting firm, stated that "Ascential Software's vision and real-time capabilities really resonate with customers because that's where most companies want to go. For example, one of our clients, Verizon Communications, has a large data warehouse and the company wants to introduce real-time capabilities in that environment. We're looking for partners like Ascential Software that can get us there."

Introducing Ascential DataStage TX
Ascential DataStage TX, formerly Mercator Inside Integrator, transforms and routes data in transactional application environments and business processes such as consumer portals, business-to-business exchanges, and trading partner networks. The solution delivers field-proven and time-tested support for industry standards including EDIFACT, HIPAA, and X12. Ascential DataStage TX currently handles $100 billion per day in SWIFT transactions between major international financial institutions.

Ascential DataStage TX is integrated into the Ascential Enterprise Integration Suite through Ascential Real-Time Integration Services. "Ascential DataStage TX rounds out and further extends the value, performance, and leadership of the Ascential Enterprise Integration Suite," said Zurek. "The incorporation of Datastage TX into our suite to support transactional data integration was resoundingly supported by our customers and partners."

About Ascential Software
Ascential Software Corporation is the leading provider of enterprise data integration solutions to organizations worldwide. Customers use the Ascential™ Enterprise Integration Suite to integrate and leverage data across all transactional, operational, and analytical applications with confidence in the accuracy, completeness and timeliness of critical information. Ascential Software's powerful data profiling, data quality, data transformation, parallel processing, meta data and connectivity solutions enable customers to reduce total cost of ownership and increase return on IT investment. Headquartered in Westboro , Mass. , Ascential Software has offices worldwide and supports more than 3,000 customers in such industries as financial services,

telecommunications, healthcare, life sciences, manufacturing, consumer goods, retail, and government. More information on Ascential Software can be found on the Web at www.ascential.com.

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Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: This release contains forward-looking statements based on current expectations or beliefs, as well as a number of assumptions about future events, and these statements are subject to important factors and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements in this release address a variety of subjects including, for example, the functionality, characteristics and performance capabilities of Ascential's products, technology and services, the ability of Ascential to expand Ascential's leadership in providing enterprise solutions that enable customers to build an integrated view of data, enable the interoperability of multiple applications, and reduce the number of data sources for new application development, the ability of Ascential's product releases to improve development efficiencies, reduce the complexity of integrating new technology with legacy systems and help manage the growth of data to meet user requirements for immediate access to information and Ascential's ability to meet the anticipated delivery dates for Trinity, Hawk and Rhapsody products. The following factors, among others, could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in these forward-looking statements: risks relating to the ability of Ascential to expand its market share, growth rates for the enterprise data integration software market, the scope and frequency of data integration projects, the ability of customers to improve performance utilizing Ascential's products, the ability of Ascential to meet anticipated product delivery schedules, integration/divestiture issues resulting from merger/acquisition activities, general business conditions in the software industry, the technology sector, and in the domestic and international economies, rapid technological change in the markets served by Ascential, dependence on international operations, and difficulties that Ascential may experience integrating technologies, operations and personnel of completed or future acquisitions. For a detailed discussion of these and other cautionary statements, please refer to the filings made by Ascential with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including, without limitation, the most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. Ascential disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statements made herein to reflect any change in Ascential's expectations with regard thereto or any change in events, conditions, or circumstances on which such statements are based.

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