ANNOUNCE(OpenSTA): PR - CYRANO confirms its move to Open Source

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CYRANO confirms its move to the Open Source development model

PARIS, France - NEWBURYPORT, MA, USA (12-SEP-2000)
CYRANO today disclosed its plans to embrace the Open Source model of 
development, an aggressive move that will enable CYRANO to harness the 
reliability and robustness of peer reviewed code, while extending 
product life cycles beyond the initial release. The technology being 
released to the Open Source community is OpenSTA (Open System 
Testing Architecture), a distributed software architecture based 
on CORBA. In its first release the product toolset will have the 
capability of performing HTTP and HTTPS heavy load tests with 
performance measurement. CYRANO plans to post the source code 
beginning with the 0.9.0 developer release, expected by the 
end of September 2000.

The Open Source Development Model
In the Open Source Development Model freedom in the availability 
of the source code and the requirement to share modifications 
promotes a longer-term viability of the product. Under the control 
of the CYRANO Open Source Software Development Group, OpenSTA 
development will be a tightly controlled development model. Final 
say on modifications and development will be owned by CYRANO.

Several factors were behind the reasoning of embracing this model:
-Peer review increases reliability, security and quality
-Open Source model increases speed of product development
-Rapid response to customer needs in both development and support
-Broader market in supporting heterogeneous environments
-Support seller model is more in line with current and future 
customer needs than a per-license/per-seat proprietary software scheme

"The end result being that everyone equally will have access to a 
freely distributable testing architecture for web-based applications, 
and one which evolves faster than its proprietary and commercial 
counterparts." said Robert Ernens, Chairman and CEO of Cyrano. "At 
Cyrano, we believe that the Open Source model will drive the software 
industry within a couple of years, and we are proud to offer our brand 
new Web load testing technology as a free software. By using it, 
e-commerce sites will maximize the expected growth in customer load, 
and then be reliable and stable enough to produce expected revenue."

OpenSTA Licensing
OpenSTA will be licensed under the GNU GPL (GNU General Public 
License). This means that everyone has the rights to use, modify, 
and redistribute the program's code or any program derived from it 
but only if the distribution terms are unchanged.

Support Seller Model
Around the OpenSTA project, CYRANO will be offering support, 
consulting and training services, bespoke feature enhancements, 
and printed documentation and CD sets. This type of business is 
known as the Support Seller Model. In this model, the software 
remains free and open, while services associated with the source 
are acquired for a fee.

"Many companies have made objections about implementing Open Source 
due to the lack of any organized support model. CYRANO will be offering 
full support, consulting and training services specifically for 
OpenSTA", said Noelle Beaudin Marketing Product Manager for OpenSTA.
"So, you not only get use of a completely open and aggressively 
evolving tool, you also get access to a dedicated team to help you 
support it in your environment. The complete offering will be 
disclosed soon."

Release Dates and Source Repository
The OpenSTA source code and installable have been prepared to operate 
in a Windows NT 4 or Windows 2000 environment. Plans for porting to all 
major platforms are in the works. Open Source developers that are 
interested in participating in the OpenSTA project will find the source 
hosted at http://opensta.sourceforge.net/ before the end of September. 
Sourceforge.net is the premier provider of hosting services for on-line 
Open Source projects.

About CYRANO
CYRANO is a public company listed on the EuroNM of the Paris Bourse 
(Reuters: CYRA.LN, Sicovam 3922). Formed in 1989, Cyrano is 
headquartered in Paris, France, with regional headquarters in the 
UK and USA.

CYRANO, is one of the world leaders in Web performance, security and 
application management. Cyrano competes with Mercury Interactive 
(Nasdaq: MERQ), Compuware (Nasdaq: CPWR), Segue (Nasdaq: SEGU) and 
Rational Software (Nasdaq: RATL) for web performance testing. For 
further information, visit http://www.cyrano.com

OpenSTA is a trademark of Cyrano
Other trademarks, service marks and company names are the property 
of their respective owners.

Contacts
In Paris, France: Philippe de La Gardette
mailto:pd...@cy...

In Newburyport, Massachusetts: Noelle Beaudin
mailto:no...@cy...