Sybase ASE: a continuing surprise
Published: 8th July 2005
By: Philip Howard
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Copyright © 2005 Bloor Research
Channel: Data Management

Sybase is scheduled to release version 15 of Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE) in the autumn. Given that Sybase is no longer regarded as one of the 800lb gorillas in the database market, it is an ongoing surprise as to just how good ASE is. It is also a surprise that the next version is ASE 15.0 whereas the current release is 12.5.

To deal with the latter question first: the reason for Sybase skipping both 13 and 14 is apparently that, while we know that 13 is unlucky in the West, it seems that 14 is unlucky in the East and, particularly, in China.

As far as the database itself is concerned, the point to remember is that Sybase has a separate product for data warehousing: Sybase IQ. Therefore developments for ASE are only focused on transactional environments and the database does not require a lot of the stuff that you need to have for data warehousing. On the other hand, the company has concentrated heavily on supporting query processing within on-line environments, to the extent that there is a good case to be made for Sybase ASE being the best performing database for hybrid environments.

As far as the new release is concerned, there are a number of significant enhancements. Amongst other things, there will be a number of new partitioning options that will support sub-indexes within partitions, extended XML support (which was already extensive, with advanced features such as hierarchical index support), expanded security capabilities (including new data encryption features), a re-developed optimiser, support for computed columns with functional indexes based on those columns and, in the first point release (15.1) there will be support for shared-disk clusters. This will be similar to Oracle’s RAC (real application clusters) except that Sybase will also support the definition of sub-clusters, which should help to maintain service levels.

The revamped optimiser is particularly interesting as it uses and extends (in fact, Sybase has multiple patent filings as a result) techniques derived from work done by Graefe and McKenna on the Volcano Optimizer Generator in the early 90s. In particular, it makes use of the fact that if you are walking an index then there is an implicit order that you can take advantage of when responding to a query. In simple terms, what this means is that you minimise the number of times that you have to go through an index. For relevant queries (such as joins with expressions but no indexes, vector aggregation with Group By, and multiple scalar aggregation) the new optimiser has produced some very significant performance gains. For example: in tests, the least improved of these resulted in I/O savings of 83% and query performance improvements of 186%.

On top of all of this, ASE is also relatively inexpensive. A recent study into total cost of ownership by The Standish Group found that Sybase ASE undercut all of its main competitors (Oracle, Microsoft and IBM) on both Windows and Linux (not Microsoft) platforms by as much as 37%.

With comparable or better performance than the big three database vendors and a lower cost of ownership, you can see why Sybase remains a cause of surprise: why is it that more companies do not think of implementing ASE? Beats me.

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Reader Comments

http://www.sybase.com/detail?id=1030108

Vo pervih, eto to gde ne najti rabotu po ASE ? Raboti hvataet,
na 1 poziciju po Sybase 2 kandidata , na 1 po Oracle - 10.
Vo vtorih, pechalno kogda takie kak Vi reclamirujut RDBMS po principu - posmatri na Market , vmesto togo chobi podumatj chto dlaja konkretnoj zadachi bolee podhodit. Eto kak bi skazatj pomjagche - ne proffesiolalno po menshej mere.
V tretjih - topik ja nazval "тем кому интересно что то отличное от MS SQL и Oracle " , ne interesno - ne zasorajne forum pozalusta pustimi postingami.

Osnovnoj rinok ASE v severnoj amerike - banki i finansovie organizacii + goverment.
Na East net raboti ??? ))) Da ne smeshi, tolko tam ono i estj, New York, Chicago , New Jersey, Boston. Gde finansi - tam i Sybase ASE. V Canade v practicheski lubom banke estj chto to na Sybase.
Po povodu rosta popularnosti, Sybase sgorodil glupostj dge to v 90x godah krupno porugavshisj s SAP, v rezultate sejchas kusajut lokti ( SAP to sejchas ogo go kakaja baza klientov), plus tupoj marketing i menedzemt todo vrmeni.
A na ASE gnatj ne nado - ochenj horoshaja baza.

Sybase Reports Strong 2005 Second Quarter Results, Exceeding First Call Consensus Estimates

На этом рынок Sybase сдулся, окончательно и бесповоротно. Фирма от этого удара не оправилсь до сих пор.

Nu ni tak uz i sdulsja )))


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Year-Over-Year Synopsis:

Total Revenue Increases 9%
Database License Revenue Increases 19%
Mobile & Wireless Business Grows 21%
Pro Forma and GAAP Operating Income Increase 48% and 76%, Respectively

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DUBLIN, Calif. – July 21 ,2005 – Sybase, Inc. (NYSE: SY), a leading provider of enterprise infrastructure and wireless software, today reported that total revenues for the quarter increased 9% to $204.4 million from total revenues of $188.0 million for the second quarter of 2004. License revenues increased 12% to $67.9 million for the second quarter ended June 30, 2005 compared with the same quarter a year ago.

to Partisan M,

S prodazej SQL Servera onu bolshe vsego sebe samim to i nagadili )))