Sybase today announced the availability of Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE) 15.5, the newest version of its high-performance, mission-critical enterprise database management system.
This latest version of ASE nonetheless provides key new functionality, Terry Orsborn, product marketing manager for Sybase ASE, tells 5 Minute Briefing. "The first is really around what we are calling ‘extreme performance.' This is our new in-memory database capability. Our customers are finding our approach to be very compelling and it is really resonating with their needs for low-latency and high concurrency."
The second key advancement is a new option with 15.5 called ASE Advanced Backup Services for Tivoli Storage Manager. "This is an integration between the ASE Backup Server with the Tivoli Storage Manager." A third key enhancement, Osborn adds, is new functionality added to the ASE Cluster Edition, specifically around "multi-simultaneous failover."
The IMDB option in Sybase ASE 15.5 enables data virtualization and scaling critical to meeting the needs of high data volume and high concurrent user organizations, whether deployed in public cloud or private data center environments. The 15.5 IMDB is fully integrated within ASE, eliminating the need for application changes and providing the flexibility that allows in-memory databases to be configured to meet application requirements.
"The in-memory database capability is very unique and compelling not just for existing customers but also potentially new customers as well," notes Raj Rathee, product manager for Sybase ASE. Sybase has a prominent role in key verticals, including financial services, telecom, as well as the federal sector, including defense, Rathee says. "If you look at financial services, for instance, especially around capital markets and trading systems, these systems are very dependent upon providing very low latency and very low response times to their end users, as well as to be able to process large volumes of data, and often this is real-time, live data such as market data, market feeds, news feeds and so on." The same can be said about systems in other verticals in which live monitoring is happening on real-time events and in which a very large number of events need to be processed, he adds.
Sybase has taken ASE 15.5 and enhanced it to support these new classes of applications, Rathee explains. "ASE 15.5 provides the foundation for supporting extreme transaction processing by supporting in-memory databases that can be used to meet these challenges around response times and increased throughput. But the kicker here with our approach is to provide in-memory database technologies completely integrated within ASE's existing ASE disk database."
With this "unique integrated, hybrid disk and memory approach within the same database server" says Rathee, customers can "just plug in the newer version of ASE and be able to leverage that and solve these kinds of problems without the massive expense of integrating different products that just don't talk to each other and have compatibility issues between them."
ASE 15.5 also increases efficiency in the data center with the integration of the ASE Backup Server with Tivoli Storage Manager from IBM. With this support, ASE databases can be backed up on any Tivoli Storage Manager-supported media, providing faster backups and restores with less network and storage resources required. This new integration provides a cost-effective solution for storage management.
ASE 15.5 editions range from a free Developer Edition to the Enterprise Family of products. For additional product details and to download ASE 15.5 Developer Edition, go here.