[Editor’s Note: We managed to mix up the Spin from our MPEG-4 licensing story into the Spin from this story, which has now been corrected. – Bryan]
IT folks will want to pay attention: Sybase, Inc., a well known name to enterprise level IT managers, has made its Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE) Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) available to OS X developers in an Early Adopter Program. From Sybase Inc.:
Sybase, Inc. (NYSE: SY), a leading enterprise infrastructure and integration company, today announced its Apple Early Adopter Program for Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE) 12.5, the company’s enterprise-class relational database management system (RDBMS). Under the program, Sybase will provide free use and newsgroup support of an Early Adopter version of ASE 12.5 for Mac OS X from July 17, 2002 until the product becomes generally available in September 2002.
"Sybase provides a cost efficient, enterprise-class data management technology that answers the performance, security and scalability demands of mission-critical enterprise applications," said Dr. Raj Nathan, senior vice president and general manager, Sybase Enterprise Solutions Division. "Up until now, the Mac community has not been able to enjoy these benefits, and we are pleased to be the first to ship an enterprise-class RDBMS on the Mac platform."
Sybase’s Adaptive Server Enterprise 12.5 has established itself as the product of choice for mission-critical applications requiring high availability, intensive transaction handling and scalability within the financial services, government, healthcare and telecommunications markets. ASE 12.5 offers customers superior database capabilities with a dramatically lower total cost of ownership than many of its competitors. ASE 12.5 for Mac OS X includes XML Management Package, which provides support for Java and XML. This enables customers to decrease time-to-market with applications running on Mac OS X, essentially delivering a quicker return-on-investment.
"Sybase’s ASE on Mac OS X is the fastest database we have ever worked with on the Mac platform," said Obul Kambham, president and CEO of Effigent. "We were also surprised at how effortless it was to port from other platforms and databases to ASE, making it very easy and affordable for our customers to upgrade to Sybase’s enterprise grade performance."
"With Adaptive Server Enterprise, it took us only a couple of days to port TeleScope Enterprise from Microsoft SQL Server running on NT to Sybase’s ASE running on Mac OS X," said Steve Sauder, CTO, North Plains Systems, the leading enterprise-class digital asset management company. "Our customers are ecstatic that Sybase brought enterprise-class database technology to the Mac platform."
Go to the Sybase Mac Web site for more information.
The Mac Observer Spin:
Back when OS X was first released, many believed that in order for it to have a fighting chance, important apps like Microsoft Office and Photoshop had to be ported to the new OS. Without these key applications many feared OS X would be stillborn, or at least relegated to obscurity.
The same fears exist as Apple tests the enterprise level IT market. If Apple is to be taken seriously, serious applications much be available for OS X and Xserve. Companies whose names may not be recognized by Aunt Matilda exist purely to provide services and applications that run the Fortune 500, and these are the companies that must invest time and effort into porting their apps to Apple’s new IT platform.
Sybase is one of those companies: its database apps can be found on servers that run Wall Street, in the Pentagon, and in many, if not all, of the top companies around the world. That Sybase is supporting OS X and Xserve is no small thing. That Sybase is actively courting OS X developers with its Early Adopter Program is nothing short of a stamp of approval.
With companies like Sybase leading the way, other prominent applications may soon follow, which is what Apple needs to have happen.
Apple doesn’t have to be a major player in the IT market, it could find a nice niche where it is accepted. It could grab just 10% of the IT market and do very well, but Apple won’t even do that if there are no heavy duty enterprise apps that run on it natively. It’s the old chicken/egg thing once again. Let’s hope Sybase gets Apple past that conundrum.