Apparently inspired by its recent acquisition of Gain Technology Inc, Sybase Inc of Emeryville, California, is expected to join the Object Management Group, taking over Gain’s membership rights by default. What the company will contribute or take from Object Management Group is unclear, even to Sybase itself at the moment; it says it is keeping an eye on developments. When, and how it will make its relational database technology compliant with Object Management Group specifications has not even been discussed, the firm says. However, the nub of Sybase’s interest in the group is thought to be focused on what it can do to make its client-server technology more object-oriented and therefore steal a march over rivals like Oracle Corp and Informix Software Inc. Sybase believes mainstream object-oriented products are at least three to four years away – even then they will then be predominantly front-end affairs to meet the industry’s demand for snappy graphics, multimedia and user-friendly interfaces, rather than back-end data engines. Sybase UK’s marketing director, Keith Dixon, says object-oriented technology as a complete set is still immature and is far too complex to incorporate into existing software. This is where the work of the Object Management Group comes in. In the meantime, Gain is to take over responsibility for Sybase’s object-oriented front-end development projects.
