SQL Server adapts

Abstract

At the International Sybase User Group Conference, Sybase Inc. will detail its strategy for managing objects across diverse distributed databases. Sybase Adaptive Server technology will manage specific application servers for handling functions such as online transaction processing, decision support, and video via a single development API and management console. The SQL Server relational database management system will be the foundation of Adaptive Server. During the conference, Sybase will also stress its commitment to SQL Server by fortifying a new release, code-named Gryphone, with data warehousing capabilities made possible through parallel technology.

Headnote

Sybase middleware to manage objects

SYBASE THIS WEEK at the International Sybase User Group Conference in Orlando, Fla., will detail its strategy for managing objects across diverse distributed databases.

Sybase Adaptive Server technology will manage specific application servers for handling functions such as online transaction processing, decision support, and video via a single development API and management console, said Mitchell Kertzman, Sybase president and CEO. These servers will then be tied together via a unified middleware layer. The SQL Server relational database management system will be the foundation of Adaptive Server, according to the company.

Sybase's approach to adding object support to its database architecture differs sharply from Informix, which has built a new object architecture in Universal Server (see Product Review, page 107), and Oracle, which is adding objects on top of its existing relational architecture in Oracle8.

For some users, Sybase's middleware approach to the challenge makes more sense.

"In concept, I like it a lot," said Howard Michalski, director of information services at GE Capital Auto Dealer Services, in Lakewood, Colo. "There's a big difference between Sybase and Informix and Oracle. What Sybase is doing is leveraging best-of-breed back-end servers, as opposed to enhancing the core relational database engine to handle different data types."

During the conference, Sybase will also stress its commitment to SQL Server by fortifying a new release, code-named Gryphon, with data warehousing capabilities made possible through parallel technology. Java support is planned throughout the Sybase architecture.

Sybase is not alone in developing an object strategy. The Oracle8 object-relational product, due this summer, is described as a good start by one user familiar with the technology.

Oracle8 will be capable of retrieving objects as collections of data without the need to program for data joins, said Bob Navarro, a senior Oracle consultant at Boeing, in Seattle. But the product as it now stands lacks important functionality, such as object inheritance, he said.

"It's pretty neat, but it needs a lot of work; Navarro said.

Oracle8 will feature enhanced replication, enabled by multiple data pipes between servers. Transactions will be easier, with a through-code path reduction. Support for large unstructured data will also be a key component.

Meanwhile, Informix is blaming an overemphasis on objectrelational technology for what is expected to be a dismal first quarter, in which the company will earn $130 million to $145 million about $70 million less than the same quarter last year.

Informix this week will also unveil new transaction-processing numbers, which the company says will put its database squarely ahead of Oracle.

Sybase Inc., in Emeryville, Calif., is at [phone] or http:// www.sybase.com. Oracle Corp., in Redwood Shores, Calif., is at [phone] or http://www.oracle .com. Informix Software Inc., in Menlo Park, Calif., is at (415) 9266300 or http://www.informix.com.