Embarcadero Technologies, a provider of database design, development and management tools for all major database platforms, has unveiled a new line of XE branded database products that incorporate three distinguishing features - deep, native support across all major databases with a consistent user interface, centralized license management and on-demand tool access via Embarcadero ToolCloud, and an easy upgrade path to Embarcadero All-Access XE.

"This is really a fundamental change in our go-to-market strategy," explains Jan Liband, vice president of marketing for Embarcadero. Leading vendors, including Embarcadero, have historically offered tools with feature support for multiple databases, but support for each database was sold separately, observes Liband. However, increasingly, more and more enterprises have more than one type of database platform that they need to support. "The idea of a single platform shop has come and gone," Liband says.

Each XE product includes native database platform and version support for all major databases, including Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, DB2, Sybase, MySQL. XE products also incorporate Embarcadero's ToolCloud technology, which centralizes and simplifies tools licensing and provisioning and gives users click-and-run access to tools via Embarcadero InstantOn capabilities.

Embarcadero's initial introduction of XE products is part of a larger companywide initiative that involves extending the XE brand and capabilities across its data modeling and application development tools later this year.

Meanwhile, Embarcadero's initial line of XE tools includes All-Access XE, an on-demand heterogeneous tool chest; DB Change Manager XE, a tool for simplifying, automating and reporting on database changes; DB Optimizer XE, a tool for heterogeneous database SQL profiling, tuning and monitoring; as well as two previously-announced products, DBArtisan XE, a tool for heterogeneous database administration, and Rapid SQL XE, a heterogeneous SQL integrated development environment. More information is available here.