Gupta Technologies LLC is prepping an upgrade to its SQLBase embedded database that promises to simplify application deployment and run at greater speeds.
To achieve that simplification, SQLBase 8.5 will allow multiple servers to run in isolation on a single machine—a feature that will be important for VARs and ISVs, according to Gupta officials, in Redwood Shores, Calif.
With existing versions of SQLBase, problems arise when customers have more than one instance of the database running—for example, if one department uses the database with a payroll application while another uses it with a shipping application. Such a setup can cause problems with data processing and DLLs.
SQLBase 8.5, which will ship next week, is designed to avoid such problems by giving programmers control over what paths lead to information such as DLL files or configuration data.
SQLBase 8.5 supports ANSI Join syntax, including multiple outer joins. Multiple outer joins enable queries to extract data from a number of tables. An example of where this would come in handy is if a query requested data for an employee who is part of a given department and a member of a sales staff—a total of three table sources, including employee, department and sales staff information. The capability to do multiple outer joins is common to major enterprise databases but less so in low-end databases such as SQLBase—which means SQLBase is reaching up to more demanding users, said Charles McLouth, product manager for SQLBase.
The upgrade promises performance thats 40 percent faster on average, officials said.
SQLBase 8.5 costs $495 per user; SQLBase Developers Edition is $29.95. The cost covers only development, not deployment.