Sybase
 | |
| Company type | Public NYSE: SY |
|---|---|
| Industry | Computer software |
| Founded | Berkeley, California (1984) |
| Headquarters | Dublin, California |
Key people | John S. Chen; chairman, CEO, President |
| Products | List of Sybase products |
| Revenue |  $813.67 million |
Number of employees | 3,568 (2004) |
| Website | www.sybase.com |
Sybase Inc. (NYSE: SY) is a software company specializing in relational database management systems and database-related products. "Sybase" is also commonly used to refer to Adaptive Server Enterprise, the company's flagship relational database system. Sybase's original architects were Dr. Robert Epstein and Tom Haggin who both had worked at Briton-Lee and the University of California, Berkeley Department of Computer Sciences. The pioneering "University Ingres" relational database system, developed at UC Berkeley, led to Briton-Lee, Sybase, Ingres (Computer Associates) Informix (IBM) and NonStop SQL (Tandem), as well as the majority of other SQL systems currently in use.
Sybase became the number 2 database system behind Oracle, after making a deal with Microsoft to share the source code for Microsoft to remarket on the OS/2 platform as "SQL Server". At the time, Sybase called the database server "Sybase SQL Server". Until version 4.9, Sybase and Microsoft SQL server were virtually identical. Due to disagreements between the two companies over revenue sharing (or lack thereof), Sybase and Microsoft decided to split the code-lines and went their own way, although the shared heritage is very evident in the Transact-SQL (TSQL) procedural language as well as the basic process architecture. The big difference is that Sybase has a Unix heritage, while Microsoft sprung from that original Unix architecture and was adapted and optimized only for the Microsoft Windows NT operating system. Sybase continues to offer versions for Windows, several flavors of Unix, and for Linux.
Sybase suffered a major downturn in fortune in the latter half of the 1990s when Informix started outselling it by a wide margin. In November of 2005, a book written by a long time Informix employee was released that chronicled the battle between Sybase and Informix. Today Informix is no longer an independent company (having been bought by IBM). As judged by revenue, IBM has taken the lead in the overall database market with Oracle a close second. The #3 position is occupied by Sybase's own offspring, Microsoft SQL Server. Today Sybase is well behind its major competitors in the enterprise database market, with 3% market share (InformationWeek March 05). Sybase has recently returned to profitability under the management of John Chen, and continues to reinvent itself with a new 'Unwired Enterprise' strategy. The 'Unwired Enterprise' vision is about allowing companies to deliver data to mobile devices in the field as well as traditional desktops, and combines technology from Sybase's existing data management products with its new mobility products. Sybase has expanded into the mobile and wireless space through buyouts of smaller networking and wireless companies, such as AvantGo, and expansion into the Asian market, specifically China. Through its mobility subsidiary, launched in 2000, iAnywhere Solutions, Sybase has become the leader of the mobile database market with SQL Anywhere.
Sybase makes a number of other data management products including Sybase IQ, a data warehouse system, Powerbuilder a client-server and n-tier application development system, m-Business Server, a mobile applications system based on the AvantGo service, and Replication Server, a vendor-neutral data movement system. Sybase has a strong presence in the Healthcare and Financial verticals.
Products
Sybase products include:
- Sybase SQL Server
- Adaptive Server Enterprise, the traditional RDBMS
- Adaptive Server Anywhere, another traditional RDBMS
- Sybase IQ, a data warehousing database
- Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE), Powerful data management platform that provides real-time services for mission-critical, transaction-intensive applications
- Replication Server, a server for moving and synchronizing data across the enterprise or heterogeneous environment
- Avaki Enterprise Information Integration (EII)
- Unwired Orchestrator, a business process management solution that uses Messaging Queues
- PowerBuilder
- PocketBuilder, a development tool for handheld mobile devices running PocketPC
- DataWindow .NET, a component that brings the power of the DataWindow to the Microsoft .NET framework
- Afaria, a remote device management solution
- Answers Anywhere, a natural language processing system
- EAServer, a Java EE compliant application server
- Sybase Enterprise Portal, enterprise information portal
- Industry Warehouse Studio
- PowerDesigner, a data modeling/UML modeling/business process modeling and XML modeling tool
- Pylon, a PIM and email synchronization tool with Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Notes back-ends
- RFID Anywhere solutions, a tool manage RFID hardware and integrate RFID data with enterprise systems
- SQL Anywhere,Market-leading data management and enterprise data synchronization solution. It enables the rapid development and deployment of database-powered applications for mobile, remote, and small- to medium-sized business environments)
- Sybase Dynamic Archive, Is an online database archiving solution that enables customers to proactively manage runaway data growth by offloading inactive data from the production system – while keeping both production and archived data fully accessible online
- Sybase Data Integration Suite,Sybase Data Integration Suite is a powerful suite of flexible components that allows enterprises to create data flows from a range of heterogeneous data sources
- Sybase Unwired Orchestrator ,The Sybase Unwired Orchestrator unwires information to mobilize existing applications and create new applications and processes to meet the needs of the mobile worker
- Sybase OpenSwitch,Increases data quality by transparently monitoring and managing transactions and communications to a safe completion
- Sybase Mirror Activator,Sybase Mirror Activator improves the economics of high-end storage replication systems by reducing network costs, accelerating recovery time, and guaranteeing data integrity. It also extends the usefulness of standby systems by utilizing them for reporting and decision support
- Sybase Real-Time Data ServicesThe simplest, most cost-effective way to give decision-makers immediate insight into changing business events, eliminating information delays created by incompatible systems, batch updates, or application polling
- OneBridge,OneBridge Mobile Platform provides an integrated, solution-oriented approach for extending enterprise applications to mobile workers. It is a flexible and powerful platform that enables most any type of mobile device, enterprise system and connectivity option, including online, offline, real-time, push or synchronization
- AvantgoMobile Internet service that delivers rich, personalized content and applications to mobile device users
- M-Business Anywhere,Provides a platform for delivering Web-based content and applications to mobile devices rapidly and cost-effectively - with minimal recoding.
- OmniQ, OmniQ technology enables applications to automatically find the most important information within the masses of unstructured information stored in organizations' centralized repositories, libraries, file systems and existing document management systems. New versions of OmniQ are being released under the name Sybase Search
User Groups
There are many Sybase-centric user groups around the world. The International Sybase User Group (ISUG) acts as an Umbrella Organisation for these groups, providing logistical support for user group meetings and other events.