Ahead of its international user meeting and training conference in San Jose, California on April 27, when the majority of System 10 components will be unveiled, Sybase Inc tomorrow unveils the first module in the latest release of its relational database management system products. As reported (CI No 2,048), OmniSQL Gateway provides location, vendor and stored procedure transparency to applications, and allows for the integration of existing applications within distributed, multi-vendor database environments. Other modules and integrated products will roll out on April 27 and over the course of the year. At the heart of System 10 will be a new version of the Sybase SQL Server, the core database server that the company has been shipping since 1987, which is now out at around some 6,500 sites worldwide. New features will include ANSI SQL89 compatibility, increased control and security features, and consistency checking and back-up. Perhaps more interesting are surrounding interoperability features due in the release, which will enable object technologies like a request broker and C++ application programming interfaces to be integrated into the environment. Moreover, Sybase’s relationship with object player Tivoli Systems Inc should result in a bunch of distributed operational control tools coming on stream for System 10 next year, as well as the provision of hooks into the database for Tivoli’s forthcoming object products. The Emeryville, California-based company also plans new ease-of-use functionality layers in System 10 – advanced features of the Sybase system have in the past proven difficult to learn and use in comparison with rival database products. Sybase expects System 10 products to kick into its revenue stream immediately its current business is evenly split between sales to new customers and upgrades at existing sites. Sybase is currently working on new software engineering repository front-end systems using object-oriented and multi-media technologies derived from its Gain Technology acquisition, which according to Sybase vice-president of marketing Stewart Schuster, is now focusing Microsoft Corp-based development on Windows NT rather than Windows or MS-DOS. Microsoft will stop short of bundling the Sybase SQL Server that it plans to offer with Windows NT, but the two firms are working on a System 10-derived add-on package, with new tools, to appear in the third quarter, which will scale to personal computers, minicomputers and mainframes.
NT very much a client system
The performance monitor, event logger and control services will be fully integrated within the operating system. It will be backwards-compatible with the Win32 application programming interface and interoperable with Sybase SQL Server 4.2 for OS/2 and offer multiprocessing support plus an SNA server gateway. However Microsoft is expected to offer a single-user version of SQL Server for NT that will appear at the same time as the operating system which, according to reports, may cost less than $1,500, and will be targeted at value-added resellers, integrators and corporate developers. It would provide a low-cost point of entry into the client-server world. Microsoft may have decided not to bundle SQL Server directly in order maintain good relations with other database suppliers, but why not do it the other way around? asks Schuster. There’s a version of SQL Server that comes bundled with OS/2, why not with NT? Schuster says relational database performance under NT on Intel Corp boxes won’t differ much from results under Unix, but doesn’t know about NT on RISC. In the short term he sees NT very much as a client system, with take-up by the server community a couple of years away. He’s more sceptical of NT’s role at the high end. Unix has managed to win space in mission-critical distributed application areas by offering its inherent diversification, customisable features and scope for optimisation as distinctive advantages for developers. Despite these kinds of market issues, Microsoft is unlikely to allow developers to add value by tinkeri
ng with NT operating system code, but it may have to change this model to win the high end, warns Schuster.
