San Jose, June 26, 2000 -- Fujitsu Software Corporation announced today that Fujitsu COBOL will support the Microsoft .NET Platform when it is first released in 2001. Fujitsu COBOL developers will be able to take advantage of all of the latest technologies provided by the Microsoft .NET Platform.

This is a significant advance for the COBOL application development community that often has to wait for COBOL vendors to catch up with the latest Microsoft features. By supporting this new platform, Fujitsu Software Corporation ensures that COBOL will be an equal player with other languages such as Visual Basic and C++ when it comes to using the latest technology. COBOL developers will have access to the latest in Web services and application development frameworks, such as ASP+, Microsoft's successor to Active Server Pages (ASP).

"The Microsoft .NET Platform provides significant improvements in the creation, execution, and deployment of sophisticated graphical and Web-based systems," said Ron Langer, Director, COBOL Sales and Marketing, for Fujitsu Software Corporation. "COBOL is still the best language for business application development, so it makes a lot of sense for us to partner with Microsoft to integrate COBOL fully into the Microsoft .NET Platform."

According to Langer, Fujitsu COBOL allows COBOL programmers, who are responsible for an estimated 70 percent of all business applications, to directly step into the Web computing world using the state-of-the-art environment provided by Microsoft. Further details of Fujitsu COBOL's integration with Microsoft's new platform will be presented at Microsoft's Professional Developers Conference to be held in Orlando, Florida from July 11-14, 2000. Fujitsu Software Corporation will give a session at the conference and be represented on the exhibitors' floor.

For more information about Fujitsu COBOL's support of Microsoft .NET, view our Frequently Asked Questions.