Conference ulysse::rdb_vms_competition

1032.0. "Comments on recent Sybase seminar" by TRCOA::MESIC () Fri Nov 22 1991 16:32

My recent experience with a "slime-dog" Sybase sales rep and the lack
of competitive information prompted me to attend a Sybase seminar in Toronto.
    Therefore, I decided to share some of the information that I picked up
    at the seminar.
The seminar was okay technically but rather boring.  The good news is
that none of the speakers practised vendor-bashing.  If they refered to
the competition they always said "other database vendors".

The technical presenter put his foot in his mouth when he asked the
audience: How many people here have Sybase?  Out of 300 attendees (yes
Sybase managed to attract 300 customers), only one hand was raised. When
he asked how many people had IBM systems, everyone put their hand up.

By the way, Sybase offices in Canada have been closing at an alarming
rate.

The following statements, features, etc. are what Sybase is telling
customers:

- they want their server to be "synonymous with with OLTP"
- they pioneered the client/server architecture
- they feel that their strength is also on the connectivity, open systems
side because they have gateway products to CICS, VSAM, DB2.  He did mention
that there was a Sybase gateway to RMS as well.

Why should you do business with Sybase?

1. strong technology
2. strong relationship with following vendors who have endorsed us:

    a) MicroSoft---Bill Gates picked their SQL server, etc, OS2 SQL Server
    b) Lotus Corp---strategic relationship since Lotus owns 18% of Sybase, Inc.
    c) Apple Corp---NEXT machine endorsement

The speaker also indicated that SQL Solutions is a wholly own subsidiary and
has has over 200 consultants.  In Canada, the office has 12 left.

Sybase claims to have 150-160 existing customers in Canada. As of Jan. '91, they
have brought on board 60+ new customers. I found this hard to believe!

Sybase is offering a 2 day training on Sybase Dec 2,3 in Toronto for $250 to
any customers.  They have customized their 5 day course to 2 days.

They bragged about their Multi-threaded server and showed the following
comparison:  

Multi-server               vs.      Multi-threaded server

-traditional/multi-server	    - low O/S overhead
-1-4 users/Mb of memory		    - 20 users/Mb (Sybase claims)
-limited to decision support	    - optimized for on-line
				    - have backend process handling, all
				      transactions for each server

Programmable Server:
    - stored procedures, build integrity
    - built with Transact-SQL, stored as objects in DB
    - re-usable and shareable code
    - reduced query processing time

- The presenter said to "think of Sybase as a DB operating system, we have 
  7x24 support"
- the Sybase software has fault-tolerance mirrowing (disk), SQLserver/CFT for
  the VAXcluster
- Sybase has virtual server for SMP - linear scalable throughput, 
  configurable resource control

- they mentioned two phase commit, but didn't say how to implement it
- their client/server is now called Sybase Open client, and Sybase open
  server

**** SQL Solutions has recently developed a DBA Admin tool called 
SA/Companion

- as part of the Sybase seminar, they had 2 customers give testimonials via
a presentation by the customer ---

  1. St. Joseph's Health Centre - lab information system - Speaker was Steven
     Ward from Ward Consulting

  2. TXbase Systems - manufacturing software

- Sybase is coming out with a GUI interface in Q2'92.
    
    
    	Hope that some of this information helps with Sybase competitive
    	situations.  I also picked up the latest product info.
    
    	Regards,
    
    	Rose