Embarcadero® Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: EMBT), a leading provider of strategic data management solutions, today announced that Embarcadero ER/Studio® 7.0, which launched last November with support for Microsoft SQL Server 2005, has earned the company 'Front Runner' status from Microsoft Corp. Embarcadero ER/Studio 7.0, in combination with Microsoft SQL Server 2005, helps enable customers to improve data accuracy, consistency and reuse with its enterprise modeling and data analysis support. SQL Server 2005 is Microsoft's next-generation data management and analysis software built to deliver increased scalability, availability and security to enterprise data and analytical applications while making them easier to create, deploy and manage.

"Microsoft has always been committed to the success of our broad ISV partner community and will continue to rely heavily on that community to drive innovative solutions to market," said Pradeep Rathinam, general manager of U.S. ISV Strategy in the U.S. Partner Group at Microsoft. "The Front Runner program was designed to provide our partners with the best development environment possible and give them the technical and marketing tools they need to be successful over the long term."

Microsoft wanted to ensure that ISVs had access to a full host of benefits to enable them to bring best-of-breed solutions to market more quickly and effectively. Giving ISVs the resources they need to fast-track the development of these applications enables customers to start taking advantage of the increased scalability, availability and security of the application built on top of SQL Server 2005 almost immediately, increasing their company's productivity.

"Embarcadero is excited to support SQL Server 2005 because it's a leading platform and a significant leap forward," said Greg Keller, vice president of product management at Embarcadero Technologies. "Achieving Front Runner status enables us to deliver applications to customers within the same timeframe as the launch of SQL Server 2005. As a result of the solution we have developed, we are uniquely positioned to help our customers get the most from their technology investment."

Embarcadero ER/Studio 7.0 is one of the most widely used data architecture and database design solutions available, automating critical processes such as the delivery, documentation and reuse of data assets. This latest release of ER/Studio incorporates powerful new collaborative enterprise model management capabilities and new data warehousing and integration support designed to help data professional teams visualize, understand, document, and share knowledge across the enterprise with increased consistency. ER/Studio 7.0 also includes improved physical modeling for database design. These new features, along with the data integration and enterprise modeling capabilities, make ER/Studio 7.0 an elegant, powerful solution that enables data professionals to proactively and strategically manage data resources.