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Database maker Sybase Inc. has joined with two companies to push its data out in real time, announced Chairman, CEO and President John Chen during the opening keynote of Sybases TechWave conference.
As part of the real-time data push, Sybase also announced Tuesday at the Orlando, Fla., conference that it has joined the Wi-Fi Alliance.
Chen was joined onstage by the leaders of the two companies with which Sybase is joining forces: Tibco Software Inc. Chairman and CEO Vivek Ranadivé and BearingPoint Inc. President and CEO Randolph Blazer. The theme of Chens keynote was “information in action”—Chens phrase for the mobile and wireless technology that enables the delivery of information “anywhere, anytime.”
Sybase, of Dublin, Calif., will work with Tibco to integrate Tibcos JMS (Java Messaging Service) technology into Sybases ASE (Adaptive Server Enterprise) relational database management system.
The combination is geared to deliver Real-time Services, technology designed to deliver information in real time when data within the database changes. Business decisions can be triggered by automatic notification of these changes. The services are being built on open standards and will be accessible via a point-and-click interface, meaning users dont have to get up to speed on a proprietary interface or use a development kit before employing them.
Real-time Services are based on Sybases ASE database and Tibcos JMS, a standardized interface for communication between Java 2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE)-compliant applications, Enterprise Java Beans and application servers.
Real-time Services should be generally available in the fourth quarter of this year. To learn more, click here.
Chen also announced at the keynote that Sybase is hooking up with BearingPoint (formerly KPMG Consulting Inc.) to offer third-party software management.
Typically, customers buy Sybase products and hire their own DBAs and IT integrators, Chen told eWEEK, unless they get Sybase to manage their mobile and wireless environments. “This is, for me, a broadening of our channels,” Chen said.
The BearingPoint offering represents a hybrid: a third party to manage any pieces of the software or day-to-day operations a customer wants to hand over, Chen said.
The managed services offering will be available worldwide. It includes a reference architecture comprising applications, infrastructure, a hosting environment, and components for monitoring and maintenance. BearingPoint and Sybase can manage the database, operating system layer and physical infrastructure that the application resides on. Services can be provisioned at the client site or at third-party hosting facilities.
BearingPoint and Sybases partnership will also produce an as-yet-unnamed revenue management system application for the health care industry, Chen said. The application will be a portal that links to insurance providers, medical labs and other data generators and will manage drug administration and other patient information, as well as patient and insurance billing.
Chen said the application will “change the art of writing” for doctors, wholl be able to toss their traditional clipboards in favor of handhelds that will be able to do things such as sync with labs to get real-time blood test results. Today, lab results are still delivered via fax in most hospitals.
Next page: Sybase Joins Wi-Fi Alliance.
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Sybase also announced it has joined the Wi-Fi Alliance, a non-profit organization formed to consolidate wireless LAN standards. Sybases officials said the goal is to deepen the companys involvement in the Wi-Fi market—a market where it is already strong. Sybase owns AvantGo, a set of wireless communications information channels, and also markets SQL Anywhere Studio—a mobile database with strong market share—under its subsidiary, iAnywhere Solutions Inc.
“Most people think hardware when they hear Wi-Fi, but innovative infrastructure and application software are equally important to making Wi-Fi work for the enterprise,” said Marty Beard, Sybases senior vice president of Corporate Development and Marketing, in a statement. “Enterprise applications that are not designed for challenges such as intermittent network access, limited device battery power and frequent security issues will not be successful—no matter how sophisticated the hardware. Based on our leadership in mobile database and middleware technology, Sybase plans to collaborate with other members of the Wi-Fi Alliance to help solve the challenges that are inherent in Wi-Fi networks.”
TechWave showgoers on Thursday will hear from Raj Nathan, Sybase senior vice president, as his keynote focuses on database management, new developments and the product direction for ASE and Replication Server.
Nathan told eWEEK that to be successful in todays challenging business environment, data managers have to keep two things in mind: 1) Data management is no longer merely a store-and-access functionality; and 2) databases must manage data for its entire lifecycle, not just store and access it for a given transaction.
“Data is exploding, in terms of the amount of data being stored either due to regulatory requirements or business requirements,” he said. “These elements and the fact that data must be available all the time are driving us toward looking at broadening the storage and access functions.”
To store and access data, database technology innovators have focused on four things, Nathan said: speed, memory, disk storage and limited bandwidth. With the exception of bandwidth, those limitations have been, to a great extent, lifted, Nathan said. Hence, its time to focus on data management throughout the entire enterprise.
To make that real, the next major version of ASE, 15.0, will beef up self-management and TCO aspects, Nathan said. Specifically, that release will feature enhanced XML capabilities, for management of unstructured data throughout the enterprise; multiple temporary databases, to facilitate query sets; and support for Linux in a longer list of platforms.