JBoss Inc., the Professional Open Source company, introduced the Hibernate Solution Certification Program (HSCP), designed to optimize performance between the company's standard-setting object/relational mapping (ORM) technology and open source and commercial databases and database connectivity software. The first two products to complete the rigorous 1,200 tests in the Hibernate Certification Toolkit are the Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) Driver and DataDirect Technologies' Connect for JDBC.

"As Hibernate continues to consolidate the Java ORM market, it is increasingly being used by Java customers running Microsoft SQL Server," said Bill Hilf, Director of Technical Platform Strategy at Microsoft Corporation. "Completing this certification is an important step in our collaboration to optimize JEMS (JBoss Enterprise Middleware Suite) on the Windows platform."

As the first partner to complete certification and put the Hibernate Certification Toolkit to the test, Microsoft played a critical role in refining the program's methodology and tests. The SQL Server 2005 JDBC Driver, available as a free, redistributable download, includes improved performance, security and support features for all data types.

With this certification, DataDirect becomes the first JBoss partner to be certified on both Hibernate and the JBoss Application Server.

Hibernate brought Java ORM to the mass market and ranks as one of the most widely used persistence solutions. Hibernate has also deeply influenced the design, architecture and philosophy of the Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) 3.0 specification, which is aimed at simplifying Enterprise Java development.

"Through the Hibernate Solution Certification Program, we're offering a standardized framework for testing performance and compatibility with leading data connectivity software," said Shaun Connolly, vice president of product management, JBoss, Inc. "This program, with valuable input from Microsoft and DataDirect, offers enterprises a critical quality check and enhanced choice when looking for data connectivity solutions to pair with Hibernate."