Visix Software Inc, Reston, Virginia, the one-time interface management development company that successfully re-fashioned itself as a cross-system application development house, has been quietly wooing the high-end of the market with its second-generation development environment, Galaxy. The package is already used extensively by independent software vendors and organisations at the high end of the market, most often in conjunction with third party tools such as Atria Software Inc’s ClearCase configuration management software. Now the company is going after the more mainstream data processing user, adding a piece of middleware called dbSpectrum, which it said enables developers that use Galaxy to create applications that can address multiple heterogeneous databases from one set of code. Previously, links to each database had to be hand-coded. Integrated with the Galaxy Datatag Manager and distributed application services, the module provides a set of libraries that enable Galaxy applications to make database-independent calls. DbSpectrum/Reports enables users to generate reports from their database queries. The company is providing support for Oracle and Sybase databases initially, saying other links, such as those for Ingres and DB2 will follow as and when customers demand them. It will create Informix links when the database company gets around to publishing its client-side application programming interfaces. Prices start from $2,500 under Unix and Windows NT. C versions of Galaxy 2.5 are priced from $9,600 per user – $12,100 for the C++ version, but there are no run-time charges. Galaxy can be front-ended with a variety of widely-used Windows and Macintosh graphical development tools, plus its own Unix-based user interface. The company’s future plans call for the database elements of the development system to be embedded in the client and for operation over native network topologies. Although Visix claims a leadership position, at least in the high end of the market, in our experience Galaxy doesn’t always get a name-check when the second-generation application crowd are holding forth on competing offerings. Visix says it is not trying to provide a complete out-of-the-box environment like its rival Forte Software Inc. Anyay, Visix claims the Forte offering is lightweight. And Galaxy’s entry price of $50,000 for five development users, comes in below Forte’s $75,000 mark. Visix claims Galaxy’s graphics and performance is far ahead of the field and enables developers to create applications – database or non-database – for tens or hundreds of users without the additional consulting and support costs it said is required by the likes of Forte. Visix, which aims to do $30m this year, over $20m-odd it turned over last year, is looking for new distribution channels and system integration partners.
