Enterprise Database Development Tools Come To Mac OS X

by , 3:00 PM EDT, May 8th, 2002

Sybase, Inc. has announced that two of its Enterprise-class database development tools, Open Client and Open Server, are now available for Mac OS X. The company made the announcement during this week's World Wide Developer's Conference (WWDC), and comes on the heels of new efforts by Apple to show off the Unix strength of its new OS. Both products are termed as "Middleware" by Sybase, and represent a small fraction of the company's overall product catalog. From Sybase:

Sybase, Inc., a leading enterprise infrastructure and integration company, announced today the availability of Open Client and Open Server for Mac OS X. These versatile programming tool kits for developers are an enterprise-class database solution to deliver Mac applications across a variety of database systems.

"Open Client and Open Server for Mac OS X bring the power of Sybase's enterprise-class database management technology to the Mac community," said Dr. Raj Nathan, senior vice president and general manager, Sybase Enterprise Solutions Division. "With the availability of Open Client and Open Server for Mac OS X, development of mission-critical, enterprise-class applications can take place directly on Mac OS X."

"Offering unprecedented stability, power and interoperability, beneath the elegant Aqua user interface, Mac OS X is a super platform for building robust and reliable applications," said Ron Okamoto, Apple's vice president of Worldwide Developer Relations. "Mac developers will be very excited to have access to such exceptional database technologies from Open Client and Open Server to create high performance applications for demanding computing environments."

Sybase Open Client for Mac OS X provides Mac OS X client seats with a high performance connection to an installed base of more than 40,000 corporate systems running more than one million databases managed by Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE). Open Client acts as a bridge between the applications developed on Mac OS X and Sybase's enterprise-class products including the Sybase ASE database manager and middleware, such as Sybase's DirectConnect™ family of products. Together with DirectConnect, Open Client allows a developer to tap into legacy enterprise databases running on Compaq, Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Silicon Graphics and Sun servers.

Sybase Open Server is a highly configurable server tool kit that greatly simplifies the design and implementation of server applications. With Open Server, programmers can extend the value of existing applications by allowing them to be used with Open Client-based applications as well as integrate legacy databases into the client/server environment. Sybase Open Server provides an ideal platform for developing gateways to many forms of data in existing systems. Together Open Client and Open Server provide a unified application program interface for accessing data and services.

"Mac OS X is gaining ground in the enterprise space," said Michael Kelly, chairman and chief architect of Techtel Corporation, a technology market research firm based in Emeryville, Calif. "In fact, among the largest buyers of enterprise technology, Mac OS X has a higher customer satisfaction than both Windows® 2000 and Linux®."

Sybase says that bother Open Client and Open Server for OS X are available now. Pricing is handled via phone calls to 1.800.8SYBASE. You can find more information on Open Client and Open Server at Sybase's Web site.

The Mac Observer Spin:

We enjoyed the last fluff quote (from Michael Kelly, chairman and chief architect of Techtel Corporation) we included from the press release the most (thanks to Observer "halogen" for pointing it out to us in the forums). One can't take these sorts of quotes too seriously, as they are often merely invented by a company's PR staff, but we hope that Mr. Kelly's comments are genuine and accurate.

As for Sybase itself, these two releases are important ones for Apple in the Enterprise market. Apple has been so low key about the corporate/Enterprise market, that it often comes as a surprise to see these developments taking shape around us. Today, it's Sybase, tomorrow (figuratively) it's Apple branded rackmount servers. What will it be the day after that? We wonder if the folks in Redmond and Round Rock, Tx. have noticed.

Sybase, Inc.