Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise 15.0.2. ships with new data protection and encryption tools that govern access to sensitive data by internal staff and database administrators.
Other enhancements in the release are aimed at improving developer productivity through simplified Transact-SQL user-defined SQL functions (UDFs), updateable views, an expanded set of statistical functions, and the inclusion of XML tables for handling unstructured text.
Sybase has also included a new archive access tool that lets DBAs validate or recover data from backups and present it alongside other online data managed by ASE.
Performance has also been improved for OLTP processing and analytics though better and intelligent use of triggers and indexes.
But it is the new security features that Sybase is dwelling on most in the release.
Sybase said that it had designed the security scheme to have a minimal impact on systems or applications performance, which is one of the trademark strengths of its ASE platform.
For example, the ASE encryption does not require changes to applications and uses Sybase’s optimizer technology to take into account column-based encryption wherever available to speed up query processing. This allows for highly efficient storage retrieval and minimizes unnecessary data decryption that slows down queries.
The need to protect data without compromising performance is a major driver for Sybase and is shown in the latest release of ASE, said Raj Nathan, chief marketing officer at Sybase.
Nathan added that a significant number of customers have already migrated to ASE 15 this year.
ASE 15.0.3 runs on 10 platforms including Windows.
Separately, the Dublin, California-based infrastructure provider also promoted Gary West as its new UK and Ireland regional director. West spent seven years working in sales management and recently led Sybase’s partner group efforts in the UK.
