Last November, Emeryville, California-based Sybase Inc began outlining its next generation relational database management system database server and tools suite, System 10. At the time the name seemed just too obviously a snipe at relational database rival Oracle Corp, which began rolling out its delayed Release 7 over the course of 1992: Sybase’s current release name is 4.9, and there seemed no logical reason to start calling anything out of the fast-growing system software supplier’s warehouses System 10. Now things begin to make a little more sense. We decided to call it System 10 because we wanted an order of magnitude improvement, claims Stu Schuster, vice-president of marketing, speaking at last week’s announcement of the availability of seven components of the 11 System 10 database server family products (more details of the tools components will come later in the year). Sybase claims to have launched the client-server market itself with the release of its Open SQL Server and Client products in 1987: now it sees itself launching a further market, enterprise client-server, mainly for mainframe customers downsizing to new systems, as opposed to the departmental (and usually Unix or VAX/VMS) first generation of SQL-based database system. The foundations for this new form of client-server computing are claimed to be found in the following System 10 vision. At the bottom level sits the SQL Server engine itself. Above it are three products fulfilling the role of distributed system management; the OmniSQL Gateway, detailed last month, is designed to provide interoperability between a number of non-Sybase and non-relational systems, and the Replication and Navigation Servers.

Orthogonal

Above this layer sits a set of open client-server Application Programming Interfaces, Open Client, Open Server and Embedded SQL. Orthogonal to the database server layers are a set of control servers, for back-up, monitoring, and administration. What all these elements are supposed to do is answer what Sybase claims are the five big reasons that users are unwilling finally to go all the way with open systems as opposed to host or legacy solutions. First, they need a well-proven advanced technology to minimise the risk of moving from a departmental system supporting up to maybe 100 users to hundreds if not thousands of users. Secondly, they want scalable systems for immediate high capacity of data storage with low entry cost. They also want to move from single-function, standalone and relatively simple-to-administer departmental or small systems, to corporate-wide, integrated and larger versions which will be harder to administer. They want (or need) interoperable systems to take advantage of heterogeneous, multi-vendor architectures, with reliable data and transaction delivery, controllable from a single location, supporting up to hundreds of Gigabytes of data. Some wish list. Sybase says this is what Unix and distributed systems need, however, if they are really to challenge the mainframe. And, you guessed it – Sybase can give it to you! Or at least some of it, in beta test, right now, and the rest later in the year (in beta again). Of the 11 System 10 elements, some are new, some have been developed with technology partners such as NCR Corp and are revamped older products. Seven were announced at the company’s well-attended (1,800 turned up instead of the expected 1,000) fifth annual international user group show in San Jose, California, last week.

By Gary Flood

Announced were a new, and supposedly high-performant and transaction processing-friendly version of its database engine, SQL Server; enhanced versions of the Open Client and Open Server offerings, plus the Embedded SQL for SQL C, Cobol and Ada precompilers; and new and enhanced control servers, the technology Sybase argues customers need to control distributed applications, Sybase Backup Server (with back-up, loading and recovery facilities, database consistency checking three times faster than in the previous release, and bulk loading of data now capable of loading up t

o 1Gb an hour, and claimed to be seven times faster. For vendors and users committed to standards, often said to be a weak spot in Sybase’s message, System 10 is supposed to be so standards-friendly you’ll fair quiver with joy. The promise is to provide standards transparency instead of picking one (or any of the 5m we’ve come up with so far). In terms of programming an interface to System 10, existing Sybase DB-Lib Application Programming Interface library codes or embedded SQL recompilers will talk easily to the new and simplified CT (for client) Lib – with only 50 instead of 350 calls, this should be simpler. The client application, can, however, talk through the Open XA, ESQL, Microsoft Open Data Base Connectivity or other Application Programming Interfaces as desired. To talk to the network software layer in the Open Client, the application will then work either through Sybase’s proprietary tabular data stream protocol or other protocols Sybase says it will support, in particular, IBM Corp’s DRDA Distributed Relational Database Architecture, the Open Software Foundation’s RDA and Borland International Inc’s emerging IDAPI. It also notes the Open Software Foundations’s Distributed Computing Environment remote procedure calls are becoming more popular, and may be supported. Open transaction processing monitors, including IBM’s CICS/6000, NCR’s TopEnd, Unix System Laboratories Inc’s Tuxedo and Transarc Inc’s Encina, will be supported as part of the X/A Distributed Transaction Support – no matter that few customers seem to have built many applications in anger with such products, Sybase says it just loves standards to death these days! In fact, with it supporting the very latest ANSI/ISO SQL-92 standard, it’s so standard it’s more standard than anyone else. With OmniSQL Gateway already in beta test, three more important products, and in some ways the most interesting, are yet to be unveiled: the Replication, Navigator and Configurator servers.

Reliable

These will handle reliable distributed data and transaction delivery, scalable parallel processing and capacity planning and design for database environments. The seven announced products are to be shipped on Hewlett-Packard Co HP 9000, IBM RS/6000, NCR System 3000, Sun SunOS, Sun Microsystems Inc Solaris, and Digital Equipment Corp VAX/VMS and Alpha VMS in 1993. After 90 days 12 other systems will be supported: Data General Corp AViiON, DEC Alpha OSF/1, Motorola Inc, NEC Corp, Novell Inc NetWare, Pyramid Technology Corp S Series, Sequent Computer Systems Inc, Silicon Graphics Inc, Stratus Computer Inc FTS and VOS and Unisys Corp U6000. The twelfth is notable: for the first time, Sybase will be available on the ICL Plc DRS 6000, ending a long and tense stand-offish relationship between it and an ICL formerly wedded to the Ingres tool set, and Sybase, and joining rivals Oracle and Informix on the ICL Unix system. And in 1994, expect an IBM OS/2 and Microsoft Corp Windows NT version when NT has settled down a little bit, says Schuster. Prices of the product set range from $290 to $256,000 with Backup Server bundled with SQL Server 10 at no extra cost.