Spotlight on TechWave 2008: Sybase Launches New and Updated Products
At Sybase TechWave 2008, Sybase's annual user conference which kicks off today in Las Vegas, the company introduced a range of new and enhanced products in support of the company's vision of the unwired enterprise. Key among the introductions was the Sybase Unwired Platform, the company's next-generation architecture for mobilizing enterprise applications. “We have had various point technologies to address various challenges of enterprise mobility, but the Unwired Platform takes this to the next level and brings it all together in a very comprehensive architecture,” Jagdish Bansiya, CTO of Enteprise Mobility, Sybase, told 5 Minute Briefing in a pre-launch interview.
Sybase Unwired Platform, which is scheduled to be available in Q4, includes a 4GL tooling environment that simplifies mobile application development, integrates with popular IDEs including Visual Studio and Eclipse, and provides the ability to design once and then deploy to a range of mobile device types, classes and operating systems, including Windows Mobile, Windows 32 (laptops/tablets) and RIM BlackBerry. It also offers out-of-the-box integration with enterprise applications, such as SAP and Remedy, and other applications that leverages databases or SOA. The Sybase Unwired Platform is integrated with Sybase’s device management and security solution which provides a single administrative console to centrally manage, secure and deploy mobile data, applications and devices.
And, with the latest release of PowerBuilder, 11.5, also announced at TechWave, Sybase seeks to continue to simplify complex data access, manipulation and presentation through its patented DataWindow technology, particularly for developers looking to deploy PowerBuilder applications to the .NET framework. “Back in 2002, we started a four-phase plan to support the .NET platform,” said Sue Dunnell, product manager, PowerBuilder. “This is phase three-and-a-half of our four-phase plan to support .NET and it has got a a lot of key features in it.”
Major enhancements include new DataWindow innovations, helping developers
create more visually appealing, data-driven applications with advanced
3D chart rendering, special gradient and transparency features,
support for PNG files, and the addition of Rich Text Edit style
for columns. The release also includes updates in connection with
releases of Microsoft technologies for .NET, including support for
Strong Named Assemblies, access to .NET static, primitive and enumerative
classes, and support for IIS7; and updated database support with
new native driver support for SQL Server 2008 and Oracle 11g. The
release also includes simplified security with support for U.S.
Federal Desktop Core Configuration (FDCC) and .NET's Code Access
Security (CAS). PowerBuilder 11.5 will be available on September
12.
In another major product update, Sybase also announced a new release of SQL Anywhere, which application partners embed in server, desktop, remote office and mobile applications. SQL Anywhere “is essentially a self-managing database system and powerful synchronization technology. It is used for managing data outside the traditional data center,” Mike Paola, director of product management, Sybase iAnywhere, told 5 Minute Briefing, adding that version 11 contains over 200 new features and enhancements. The release set a TPC-C performance record for solutions less than $35,000.
SQL Anywhere 11 expands its range of enterprise-caliber database features with embedded full-text search, parallel sorting, and immediately maintained materialized views by optimizing them for environments outside the data center. In addition, SQL Anywhere includes support for BlackBerry devices, MySQL, and background data synchronization. Additionally, Sybase announced a new Web edition of SQL Anywhere, as part of an initiative to optimize SQL Anywhere for the Web developer community.
For information about the Unwired Platform, go here.
For more on PowerBuilder, go here. For more on SQL Anywhere, go here. SQL Anywhere Web Edition is now available for download here.
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Hayes Management Consulting Inks Partnership Agreement with InterSystems
Hayes Management Consulting, an industry leader in healthcare consulting, and InterSystems Corp., a provider of database and integration software for connected healthcare, have signed a partnership agreement for the purpose of offering expanded integration technology solutions to the global healthcare IT markets.
Hayes plans to develop affordable packaged software solutions such as business process and activity dashboards and single view capabilities using the InterSystems Ensemble rapid integration platform to bring disparate healthcare systems together for business and clinical end-users.
Currently, physicians must access multiple systems to obtain patient information, said Paul Grabscheid, InterSystems vice president of strategic planning. But, using the InterSystems Ensemble rapid integration platform and Hayes’ design expertise, all patient information can be served to the clinical user via a single view. “For executives, real-time dashboard information will allow them to make decisions proactively to optimize performance,” said Grabscheid.
“It’s a great fit,” added Andy Treanor, vice president of technology solutions for Hayes. “Both companies seek to provide cutting-edge healthcare technology to reduce costs and improve business performance that enables safer patient care.”
For more information about Hayes Management Consulting, go here. For more about InterSystems, go here.
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IBM Introduces New Integrated Data Protection Solutions
IBM has announced a new suite of integrated data protection solutions intended to provide customers with improved business continuity and comprehensive recovery of data and applications, as well as the ability to address compliance across customer data centers and remote offices. The new Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack software is based on technology acquired in IBM's acquisition of FilesX earlier this year. Part of IBM’s Tivoli Storage Manager line, the new software expands IBM’s existing enterprise data protection solutions with capabilities to help protect data that resides outside managed servers, on remote networks.
The TSM Fastback, delivers “great complementary technology” to the IBM data protection portfolio, which already includes Tivoli Storage Manager, IBM's flagship enterprise product, as well as the Tivoli Continuous Data Protection for Files, which is targeted at SMB customers as well as laptop and desktop users, John Connor, product manager for TSM and TSM Fastback, IBM, told 5 Minute Briefing. TSM Fastback “fits very well” between those two for smaller companies as well as the remote branch offices of enterprises. “We really feel now we have got a great end-to-end story,” he noted.
The new products include IBM Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack for continuous data protection and near-instant recovery technology for Windows file servers and applications including Microsoft Exchange, Microsoft SQL, Lotus Domino, Oracle, DB2 and others; IBM Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack for Microsoft Exchange for quick restore of individual Exchange objects such as email messages and attachments, contact lists, calendars, tasks and journal entries; and IBM Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack for Bare Machine Recovery to help users easily recover entire systems to a comparable server, to a new server with different hardware or to a virtual machine. A fourth offering, IBM Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack Center, combines the three Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack products into a single bundled offering.
IBM System Storage DS4000 and IBM System Storage DS3000 select models have been added to the suite of storage products intended to integrate with IBM Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack to provide SMB customers with comprehensive data recovery and business continuity solutions.The new IBM Tivoli Storage Manager FastBack solutions will be available August 15, 2008. For more information on the IBM Tivoli Storage Manager family, go here.
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Imperva Extends Packaged Security, Audit and Compliance Modules to PeopleSoft Applications
Imperva, a leader in application data security, has extended its Imperva ADC Insights product line with PeopleSoft Insights, which monitors and protects PeopleSoft applications and data. Imperva ADC Insight Services enable organizations to streamline the compliance process and meet regulatory requirements on their application infrastructure without in-depth knowledge of the applications or mandates.
ADC Insights instantly configure SecureSphere to monitor and protect leading enterprise applications including SAP, Oracle E-Business Suite, and now PeopleSoft. ADC Insights provide continuously updated configuration packages that tailor SecureSphere for the compliance, audit, and security needs of these specific business applications and regulations. Multiple ADC Insights can be applied at the same time to achieve extremely focused application security and compliance.
“Insights lets you get speed to value for the Imperva SecureSphere deployment,” Mark Kraynak, senior director of strategic marketing for Imperva, told 5 Minute Briefing. “PeopleSoft is pretty well-understood; it is a known quantity. One deployment isn't exactly the same as another but there is a lot of commonality in terms of where the data lives in the database and what kind of audit and security rules there should be. Our research team, the Application Defense Center, basically looks at PeopleSoft and delivers that content out of the box so you don't have to spend time as an administrator of SecureSphere understanding the PeopleSoft structure. We give you the PeopleSoft structure and then you can use the products a lot faster.” The other advantage PeopleSoft Insights offers users, noted Kraynak, “is a little more guarantee that you are doing the right thing - because this is what we do every day.”
Imperva PeopleSoft Insights enhance SecureSphere's existing monitoring and protection capabilities with application-specific assessments, security and audit policies, monitoring, reporting and alerting. PeopleSoft Insights include data structure knowledge, including pre-packaged definitions, information on where data is stored, which data is sensitive, and what constitutes normal usage; automatic assessments for applications, databases, and operating system specific vulnerabilities and configuration problems provide security assurance. PeopleSoft Insights can provide privacy rules for sensitive healthcare data in PeopleSoft HRMS that may be regulated by HIPAA, or credit card data in PeopleSoft CRM governed by the PCI DSS, and pre-built reports to clearly identify risks and measure compliance against regulations and/or security policies. For more information, go here.
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SAS acquires IdeaS to Support SAS Profit Optimization Global Practice
SAS, a leader in business intelligence and analytics, has acquired IDeaS Revenue Optimization, a provider of advanced revenue-management software for the hospitality industry. SAS acquired the company in connection with SAS's new Profit Optimization Global Practice, announced in November. The new group was formed to apply revenue-management techniques to help companies optimize profitability, using advanced analytics to determine the most profitable market segments and prices.
The group seeks to build solutions for revenue management and pricing in multiple industries across the globe, Steve Pinchuk, leader of SAS Global Profit Optimization, told 5 Minute Briefing. “Looking at what areas we wanted to get into first, the hotel area came up top on the list as an area actively looking for these kinds of solutions and instead of building out the solution ourselves, we started looking at what existed to see if we could get faster to market and more leverage by acquiring some existing technology,” Steve Pinchuk, leader of SAS Global Profit Optimization, told 5 Minute Briefing.
According to Pinchuk, SAS saw “great synergy" between the two companies because two areas IDeaS was “very strong in” were areas that SAS “had not developed strongly.” These included “a great user interface for business – that made it easier for businesses to use it” - and their software-as-a-service delivery method. “SAS on the other hand had all the great predictive analytics and forecasting models so we saw that by combining the two of these we could really get one plus one equals 11, instead of two.”
With its existing portfolio of advanced analytics, business intelligence and industry-specific solutions, SAS said it now has the leading revenue-management offering designed specifically for the travel and hospitality industries. This acquisition is also intended to further establish SAS as a leader in this area by complementing SAS' retail revenue optimization suite, which is currently deployed by a number of global retailers such as Hudson's Bay Company of Canada and Kohl's Department Stores.
IdeaS will remain as an independent entity within SAS, said Ed Booth, CEO of IdeaS. “We will be independently run,” but there will be working “very closely" with the Profit Optimization Global Practice, Booth said. For more on IdeaS, go here. For more on SAS, go here.
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