By John Rogers
Cloudscape Inc, the embedded Java relational database company, has launched its next-generation product, Cloudscape 1.5. Billed as the industry’s first embeddable Java database designed for distributed, disconnected and mobile computing, the Oakland, California-based company also claims the product remains the only 100% pure Java SQL database on the market. New in version 1.5 is the Virtual Table Interface, or VTI, which allows Java programmers to integrate data from a variety of sources, while making all of the data seem to an application as if they are tables in a Cloudscape database. Also included this time around is optional packaged integration with BEA Systems Inc’s WebLogic application server for turn-key application development, performance enhancements and a cost-based optimizer to enhance query performance through automated system optimization. The product maintains a 1.5Mb footprint so it can be easily embedded into applications deployed over the corporate intranet or downloaded from the internet. Support for JDBC 2.0 and ODBC 3.0 are also new. The product goes for the same price as its predecessor at $895 per single user development license and $195 per single user deployment license. Version 2.0 is in beta now, and vice president of marketing Malcom Colton explained that the main enhancement to that version is the inclusion of LUCID (Logic Up, Consistent Information Down) technology, which the company describes as the most advanced synchronization technology available today. LUCID is designed to synchronize both application logic and data, providing superior conflict resolution without custom coding at remote sites. The product will be able to capture a business level remote event and replay it at a central site, while data changes are in turn propagated to remote sites. Any need for remote maintenance or management will essentially be eliminated. Version 2.0 will also feature row-level locking, which allows for higher multi-user concurrency in deployed server environments. Pricing for 2.0 will be announced closer to its scheduled release in the second quarter of 1999. Looking even further out to version 2.5, Colton admitted the company doesn’t really know what new features it will be including – other than improvements to make the product easier to use and faster – as they will mostly be in response to customer requests. New versions of the database should come out at six- month intervals, with 2.5 due in the fourth quarter of 1999. The product used to be called the Cloudscape JBMS, although due to restrictions on the Java moniker imposed by Sun Microsystems Inc, that acronym couldn’t be expanded to explain what it stood for. So the company now simply calls it the Cloudscape database. Cloudscape currently claims roughly 200 customers since it started shipping product in February. The 45-person company, which has been funded by venture capital since its inception in 1996 – including a $10m round of financing in June – has enough cash to last it until the end of next year. Some time between now and then, Colton said, some type of financial transaction will take place, whether it be more funding, angel money, an IPO (depending upon market conditions, of course) or even a merger. Although financials weren’t discussed in detail, revenues for this fiscal year, which ends in March should be in the range of $3m-$5m. The company also just hired chief financial officer Chris Paul, who was formerly the CFO at helpdesk software company Remedy Corp.
