Content area
At the top of Sybase's 1997 agenda is a middleware architecture featuring transaction and application servers that will enable multithreaded applications to run over the Internet, with the server delivering data to a Web server. Code-named Jaguar, the middleware will support the Distributed Component Object Model and CORBA distributed object standards. On the database side, parallel database enhancements planned for an early-1997 release of SQL Server, code-named Gryphon, include support for parallel queries, loads, and unloads. SQL Server 11.0, the current release, is limited to some internal symmetric multiprocessing optimizations, but users in the new relational database management system will be able to assign decision-support and transactional tasks to different processors.
Full text
Internet middleware, faster RDBMS will kick off strategy
STRUGGLING SYBASE plans a revival in 1997 with the arrival of a database-independent middleware strategy for intranets that leverages Java and enhanced parallel processing in the Sybase SQL Server relational database.
At the top of the 1997 agenda is a middleware architecture featuring transaction and application servers that will enable multithreaded applications, such as financial services, to run over the Internet, with the server delivering data to a Web server, Sybase officials said. Codenamed Jaguar, the middleware will support the Distributed Component Object Model and CORBA distributed object standards.
Sybase's middleware approach shows promise because it may give users an open platform for transactions while tying in security and management, an analyst said.
"I think there is some real possibility of excitement, because this should be easier to use than bringing in a transaction monitor [such as IBM CICS] said Don DePalma, a senior analyst at Forrester Research, in Cambridge, Mass.
Having slipped to the No. 3 position in the database market behind Oracle and Informix, according to some surveys, Sybase next year wants to focus on its core strengths of database performance and scalability, said Mitchell E. Kertzman, Sybase's president and CEO.
"I think in 1997 Sybase will regain its reputation as the performance leader and the technology leader in itsmarketplace," Kertzman said. Sybase lost $19.5 million in 1995. On the database side, parallel database enhancements planned for an early-1997 release of SQL Server, code-named Gryphon, include support for parallel queries, loads, and unloads. SQL Server 11.0, the current release, is limited to some internal symmetric multiprocessing optimizations, but users in the new relational database management system (RDBMS) will be able to assign decisionsupport and transactional tasks to different processors.
Sybase eventually plans to add the Java virtual machine to SQL Server, enabling Java applets to be executed within the database server as stored procedures. Despite the Internet push, the lack of a well-detailed architecture from Sybase and details about object-relational support has been a detriment, said Bill O'Brien, associate research scientist at Phillip Morris USA, in Richmond, Va.
"They don't have a convincing architecture story," O'Brien said.
Sybase's object-relational plan for supporting new data types includes releasing a version of SQL Server called Adaptive Server, enabling multiple data types to be called from a single query. Sybase would not specify a release date.
Sybase Inc., in Emeryville, Calif., can be reached at (510) 922-3500.
Copyright Infoworld Media Group Dec 16, 1996