Sybase Incorporated’s annual user conference, TechWave, kicked off in Orlando, Florida this week amid the devastation caused by hurricane Charley over the weekend. A key message to emerge from the Dublin, California-based infrastructure software firm was its commitment to radio frequency identification technology.
Sybase is now positioning itself to take a big stake in the radio frequency identification (RFID) integration, middleware, and mobile computing markets, three areas in which the company has developed core competencies.
To jump-start deployments of the supply-chain tagging technology, Sybase launched an early adopter program and conference attendees were given a sneak preview of new RFID middleware and data management technologies that will be released later this year. However the company did not reveal component details of the technology under development.
Sybase’s strategy is to foster partner development around the middleware which simplifies and automates the deployment of both passive and active RFID tagging supply chain solutions.
The RFID technology also includes specially-extended products from Sybase’s enterprise solutions portfolio developed by Sybase’s iAnywhere Solutions Inc. subsidiary. Sybase also announced a joint mobile real-time RFID tracking solution with one of its partners AeroScout Inc., a San Mateo, California-based firm that makes RFID tag tracking products.
Other major announcements on the opening day of the event included a beta program launch for its next generation Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE) relational database system and a new release of PowerBuilder, the company’s mature development tool,
ASE 15 will include new semantic data partitioning and query processing, support for native XML handling and data encryption services, and real-time messaging, and enhanced (native). The new partitioning capabilities will allow users to store more data and run more complex queries and manage database areas more discretely.
The beta launch of ASE 15 is set for later this month with a general release slated for mid-2005.
PowerBuilder 10, which has been released, offers better support for heterogeneous development platforms through tight integration with J2EE and Microsoft .NET software environments.
The tool adds Unicode support (to facilitate build once-deploy in many languages development schemes) and an XML Web DataWindow and comes with a plug-in for Sybase’s PowerDesigner modeling tool is also provided.
