While there have been a number of financial results releases over the past couple of weeks, one of the more interesting is from SAP (news, site),  not only because its software business is often used as a market indicator, but also because of the recent closure of the massive Sybase deal.

Read full story... www.cmswire.com | 7/29/10 5:52 PM

Business software maker SAP AG said Tuesday that growth in the United States and emerging markets helped it to a 15 percent increase in second-quarter net earnings.

SAP earned euro491 million ($636 million) in the April-June period, up from euro426 million in the same period a year earlier, according to the company's preliminary earnings statement.

Total revenue increased 12 percent to nearly euro2.9 billion from euro2.6 billion a year ago, it added. Revenue from software and software-related services was up a stronger 16 percent, to euro2.26 billion from euro1.95 billion.

SAP, based in Walldorf, Germany, also said it has completed its cash tender offer for U.S. database software maker Sybase Inc. -- a $5.8 billion takeover that won clearance from the European Commission last week.

SAP, whose programs help companies like Apple Inc.'s iTunes do back-office work such as payroll, inventory management and accounting, said it was seeing increased investment from companies of all sizes and from many sectors.

"We had outstanding growth in strategic markets like the U.S. and we saw continued double-digit growth in key emerging markets in Latin America and Asia," co-CEO Bill McDermott said in a statement. He credited "renewed customer confidence" as a factor in the second-quarter performance.

First-half net earnings were up 41 percent at euro878 million from last year's euro622 million. Total revenue was up 9 percent at euro5.4 billion, while software and software-related service revenue climbed 14 percent to euro4.2 billion.

Including Sybase, SAP said it expects full-year software and software-related revenue to increase by between 9 and 11 percent in constant-currency terms.

With the acquisition, SAP said it expects that it "will be able to extend its reach into new user categories well beyond its traditional user base."

Sybase will continue to operate as a separate company under its current CEO, John Chen, SAP said. It added that "Sybase's expertise...

www.cio-today.com | 7/28/10 3:32 PM

Business software maker SAP said Tuesday that growth in the United States and emerging markets helped it to a 15 percent increase in second-quarter net earnings.

www.topix.net | 7/27/10 8:58 PM

Co-CEO McDermott sees increased customer confidence and pent up demand for IT in the U.S.

www.crn.com | 7/27/10 4:33 PM

Crunched by the economy and squeezed by competition, businesses and consumers alike are turning to mobile computing. This report wraps up our overview of the top contenders in the mobile database market with a look at Sybase SQL Anywhere and SQLite. redir.internet.com | 7/24/10 12:23 AM

The quick permission for the deal contrasts with Oracle's lengthy effort to win EC approval for its Sun acquisition.

www.crn.com | 7/21/10 8:06 PM

The acquisition of Sybase (news, site) by SAP (news, site) which was first announced in May, has passed the final hurdle after the European Commission gave it regulatory approval on Tuesday evening.

With the deadline for the deal fast approaching, the German software giant extended its offer deadline for its US$ 5.8 billion cash offer for Sybase shares pending approval. With EU approval now in the bag, the deal is due to finally close next Monday.

Read full story... www.cmswire.com | 7/21/10 4:00 PM

European competition regulators on Tuesday approved German business software giant SAP's 5.8-billion-dollar (4.5-billion-euro) takeover of California-based Sybase. www.physorg.com | 7/20/10 9:40 PM

German software maker SAP AG is set to gain unconditional European Union regulatory approval this week for its $5.8 bn takeover of Sybase, a source close to the case said on Tuesday. economictimes.indiatimes.com | 7/20/10 10:01 AM

I just finished delivering two developer days in Tel Aviv Israel in cooperation with Ness Technologies, the local Sybase distributor. Over 70 developers attended. For over 5 hours I overviewed, described and demo'd lots of PB 12 .NET features. For the last 1.5 hours of the day I led the groups through a series of hands on exercises to give them a real world flavor of new IDE and platform and their advanced capabilities. Attendee excitement was palpable as I led them through migrating and testing several Classic applications. They were enthused as I led them through trying out some of .NETs WPF and WCF features inside the latest incarnation of their favorite tool. The Israeli IT industry media stopped by to report on and film a part of the presentation.

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pbdj.sys-con.com | 7/15/10 3:35 PM

Sybase is currently in the middle of the most aggressive marketing program that I’ve seen for PowerBuilder in recent history. If you’ve been following my blog (and if you haven’t you should) you’ll know that Sybase recently ran a four-page ad in Visual Studio magazine promoting the release of PowerBuilder 12 (http://xrl.us/bhmxfe ). They’ve also been conducting a worldwide series of “Developer Days” promoting PowerBuilder 12 and a number of other Sybase products. One of the things they show during that road show is a rather tentative “road map” of which features are planned for future versions of PowerBuilder (http://xrl.us/bhmxfr ). The release of PowerBuilder 12 triggered some complaints about some of the features that were removed with that release (primarily support for creating COM and COM+ components). Associated with that were complaints about features currently supported in “classic” PowerBuilder targets that are not supported in the .NET targets (e.g., data pipelines). There were also some complaints that the requests in the ISUG enhancement system (http://my.isug.com/enhancements ) weren’t being adequately considered.

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pbdj.sys-con.com | 7/14/10 9:20 PM

Service providers are facing a constantly evolving marketplace and rapid changes in mobile technology for field workers. Organizations that take advantage of mobile computing solutions to effectively extend information to the point of service can achieve significant business benefits, including enhanced productivity and ROI. Forward-thinking companies are seeking mobility solutions that allow them to offer timely, accurate and efficient service-wherever and whenever needed. To discover the solution that is right for you, join Sybase and their industry-leading mobility partners for a complimentary interactive virtual event. At this educational online conference, you will learn how to take the next step in empowering your mobile workforce in the field. The event will feature a keynote by an expert at Sybase as well as informative sessions by mobile technology leaders in field service.

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pbdj.sys-con.com | 7/14/10 12:47 PM

Database Workbench 4.0.3 brings you some small improvements, bugfixes and introduces the free Lite Editions for MySQL, InterBase and Firebird. Version 4 introduced full Unicode support, 4.0.3 fixes some issues found in that initial release and subsequent releases, including the "Query was empty"-error in some parts of the MySQL module. Version 4 feature highlights: - Unicode Enabled - Click header to sort data - Integrated BLOB Editor with SQL Editor - "Secure Object Drop" and "Secure Database Drop" functionality - Code editor enhancements and much more... Database Workbench supports: - MySQL - InterBase - Firebird - Oracle - NexusDB - Microsoft SQL Server - Sybase SQL Server www.upscene.com | 7/13/10 3:06 PM

The International Sybase User Group, a trade association representing more than six thousand members in more than sixty countries around the globe, has announced the immediate availability of its latest course offering in conjunction with online training specialist eLearnIT LLC. The new course is entitled “ASE Performance & Tuning with MDA Tables” and has been strategically planned to offer a pragmatic combination of both practical and theory-based skills for Sybase DBAs. With today’s data center management demands becoming increasing time critical as well as mission critical, this course compehensively provides DBAs with the invaluable skills they will need to perform effectively when troubleshooting problem queries and bottlenecks within Sybase ASE.

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pbdj.sys-con.com | 7/8/10 7:08 PM

In my opinion, SQL Anyhwere is the best RDBMS I can think of. I can remember when we started distributing it in Germany back in the early 1990ies, as one of the first early adopters in this country. Since then, we provided it to hundreds of enterprises, from single-person laptop-only ones to large ones spanning replicated installations crossing country borders. So call me biased in that point, but never did I wish to move on to a differed one, even now after decades. It's like a Volkswagen. It runs and runs and runs, and needs virtually no administration. Actually I love it.

But what I do not love is its performance. There are some things I wish could work just faster. But as it is impossible to get optimum performance with a zero-administration system obviously, one has to take care to do performance-friendly coding. There is much room in the JDBC API to squander performance - or to win some. One thing that will give a performance boost in some situations is batching processing: Adding several commands together into one large packet, getting all of them processed in one single step, will not only keep the LAN latency's influence on the transaction's execution time low by reducing the amount of LAN roundtrips (and such offers others the possibility to use the LAN in the freed time slices), it also speeds up own transaction speed by more likely keeping rows in the cache which would be otherwise swapped out possibly in the mean time, and it shortens the time database locks are blocking others from accessing (what in turn speeds up their transaction speed and such is "more social behaviour").

So batch processing is key for performance improvement, and the SQL Anywhere server product comes with this features for very long time. But not the JDBC driver. While JDBC actually has methods for building and executing batches (namely Statementl.addBatch(String), Statement.executeBatch() and Statement.clearBatch()), SQL Anywhere's very own JDBC driver didn't implement that methods so far. So if one wanted to use batches, there was no other way to glue the SQL commands together as an SQL string and pass it to the driver. Not very smart, and everything but portable, as the string had to include BEGIN and END statements to get parsed correctly.

Then came the day when I just found that enough is enough and asked Sybase to implement batch support into the driver. After surprisingly short discussion they actually added it and published it "silently" as part of the latest patch (EBF - Express Bug Fix). So when downloading the latest EBF for SQL Anywhere 11.0.1, you will get it without further note (just as you got the new driver with maintenance update 11.0.1, without any note in the manual, too - it still says no single word about this fast driver). I was happy and gave it a test - and was very unsatisfied with the resulting performance.

So here come the good news first. Yes, the EBF enables support of JDBC batch mode in the SQL Anyhwere 11.0.1 driver (remember, we're not talking about the iAnywhere or the jConnect drivers - the first is outdated and such not covered by my test, the latter already had batch mode support on board, but is just completely slow). One can use the aforementioned commands and they will just work as expected. The road is free for readable and portable code: No more need to glue together strings. No more? Wait!

The bad news is still to come. If you're a performance junkie like me, and this is typically why you actually want to use the batch mode, you still will have to live with the non-portable dirty string-glueing code. Because the batch mode is just horribly slow. The following performance comparison will show it. Ignore the numbers (millesconds actually) in their actual size, but concentrate on the dimensions solely:

• Compound Commands: 37ms
• Batch Mode: 112ms

Yes, this is not a typo! The batch mode actually is more than three times slower than glueing SQL strings together manually. In other words, if performance is your target, using batch mode instead of dirty glueing will reduce performance by 300%. Good lord! Why so?

To understand this result, one must see what the batch mode actually does: According to the JDBC specification it not just appends SQL statements, but also will return the number of actually modified rows. And there's the rub. To be able to return a list of results, the driver must collect them. And this just costs time. The more SQL statements in the batch, the longer the list of results to keep in memory til end of the batch, the higher the RAM consumption. It's just as easy as this. I couldn't believe above numbers at first, so I checked what would happen if I collect the results on my own, using a compound command built up of my actual SQLs plus a temporary table, which in the end will be more or less exactly what the driver would do. The result is frightening:

• Compound Commands: 37ms
• Batch Mode: 112ms
• Simulating batch using temporary table: 297ms

Simulating the batch mode's exact behaviour results in 300% worse performance. So it seems, the batch mode actually is much faster than compund commands are. The first test just was not fair, is the original compound commands were executed without getting back any result. Unfortunaltey, the JDBC API doesn't offer ignoring results with batches, so the driver always has to provide them, even if those are not used by the calling application.

What we can learn from this example is: If optimum performance is the target, then there is no general solution. Instead, the application programmer must choose different approaches for each situation. If results are not needed, batch mode should be avoided. But if the application needs results, batch mode is the method of choice. So in the end, the latest driver actually brings a tremendous performance impact in both directions - 300% gain when results are needed, 300% leakage when results are not needed.

Challenged by this insights, I tried more ways to execute lots of commands and did some performance measurements. Stay tuned for the next article telling the actual speed of prepared statements, result set update mode, and stored procedures. If you liked this article, you will love the next one.

Regards
Markus

For those interested in the actual source code of the batch simulation, here is a small code snippet that will show the overall idea

StringBuilder compoundSql = new StringBuilder("BEGIN DECLARE LOCAL TEMPORARY TABLE T (r INTEGER); ");
for (String singleSql : allSqlCommands)
  compoundSql.append(singleSql).append("; INSERT INTO T SELECT @@rowcount; ", sql));
compoundSql.append("SELECT r FROM T; END;");
statement.executeQuery(compoundSql.toString());

www.java.net | 7/3/10 2:19 PM

SAP today announced that it has extended the expiration of its cash tender offer for all outstanding shares of common stock of fellow business software company Sybase at a price of $65.00 per share or $5.8 billion in total. The tender offer was previously scheduled to expire at 9:00 p.m., New York City time, on July 1, 2010 and has now been extended until the same time on July 16, 2010. techcrunch.com | 7/2/10 1:19 PM

Oracle buys Sun. HP buys 3Com. SAP buys Sybase. Just when it seemed like consolidation among the big data-center vendors had played itself out, we're off again at full tilt.

www.topix.net | 6/16/10 1:01 AM

June 15, 2010, 10:10 AM - - Oracle buys Sun. HP buys 3Com. SAP buys Sybase. Just when it seemed like consolidation among the big data-center vendors had played itself out, we're off again at full tilt.

www.topix.net | 6/15/10 11:32 PM

June 15, 2010, 10:10 AM - - Oracle buys Sun. HP buys 3Com. SAP buys Sybase. Just when it seemed like consolidation among the big data-center vendors had played itself out, we're off again at full tilt.

www.topix.net | 6/15/10 6:39 PM

PC World - Oracle buys Sun. HP buys 3Com. SAP buys Sybase. Just when it seemed like consolidation among the big data-center vendors had played itself out, we're off again at full tilt. Multiple trends are driving the latest acquisitions wave: The economy is recovering, customers are demanding systems that are easier to implement and vendors seem intent on collapsing the divide between servers, network and storage. us.rd.yahoo.com | 6/15/10 12:10 PM

(NYSE: SY) as key to satiating clients' mobility demands, SAP's Latin American CEO Rodolpho Cardenuto told BNamericas. SAP divides its strategy into three components: on-premise solutions, on-d... story.venezuelastar.com | 6/15/10 4:12 AM

You've taken a quick look, and decided that Sybase ASE Cluster Edition is right for you. Managing the POC requires a great deal of forethought and planning. Jeffrey Garbus shares some best practices to get you started. redir.internet.com | 6/12/10 12:08 AM

This has been a busy couple of months for enterprise mobility. 2010 isn't half over, and there are already significant changes in the enterprise mobility landscape: HP agreed to acquire Palm; SAP agreed to buy Sybase; McAfee made a deal to acquire Trust Digital; Antenna Software acquired Vaultus; and BoxTone announced MSM, a super-EMM solution, to name but a few. www.ecommercetimes.com | 6/10/10 1:00 PM

Database Workbench 4.0.2 brings you some small improvements, bugfixes and introduces the free Lite Editions for MySQL, InterBase and Firebird. Version 4 introduced full Unicode support, 4.0.2 fixes some issues found in that initial release, like ODBC connectivity issues, BLOBs taking too much memory, the ability to specify file encoding when saving SQL & Scripts and several other errors. Version 4 feature highlights: - Unicode Enabled - Click header to sort data - Integrated BLOB Editor with SQL Editor - "Secure Object Drop" and "Secure Database Drop" functionality - Code editor enhancements and much more... Database Workbench supports: - MySQL - InterBase - Firebird - Oracle - NexusDB - Microsoft SQL Server - Sybase SQL Server www.upscene.com | 6/9/10 7:27 AM

SAP AG, which last month agreed to buy Sybase Inc. for $5.8 billion, said it is targeting more acquisitions as the world’s biggest maker of business-management software aims to win market share. www.businessweek.com | 6/8/10 3:37 PM

If you count 'luggables' like early 80s KayPros and Compaqs, laptop PCs preceded smartphones in big business by at least a quarter of a century.

www.topix.net | 6/5/10 7:48 AM

InfoWorld - Few companies get a chance at a second life. When John Chen signed on as CEO of Sybase in 1998, the database software vendor was, in Chen's own words, "a very, very dead company." Once a strong competitor to Oracle, Sybase had lost its way, in part because it missed the opportunity to enter the enterprise application market Oracle now leads. us.rd.yahoo.com | 6/3/10 11:00 AM

Julian Stuhler addresses a couple of fascinating acquisitions, both announced on the same day and each of which could have a significant impact on the world of DB2. Join Julian as he speculates on the facts, rumors and implications of these acquisitions. redir.internet.com | 5/29/10 12:01 AM

One thing I haven't seen anybody commenting on is the fact that with SAP acquiring Sybase, it will be the last major independent database company to be merged into a larger SW company. (To say this, you can qualify MySQL AB as a major database company, but disqualify, say, EnterpriseDB or InterBase, which imho is entirely reasonable.) read more openlife.cc | 5/28/10 12:49 PM

Oracle responds to SAP's recent acquisition of Sybase.

feedproxy.google.com | 5/27/10 1:22 PM

Oracle responds to SAP's recent acquisition of Sybase. www.theserverside.com | 5/27/10 1:22 PM

The slogan "Bigger, Better, Faster" was always the driving force behind the database technology evolution. The latest release of Sybase ASE 15.5 is no exception.

redir.internet.com | 5/27/10 12:23 AM

Sybase Inc. initially rejected a takeover offer from SAP AG, prompting the German business software maker to increase its bid by about $350 million, Sybase Chief Executive Officer John Chen said. www.businessweek.com | 5/25/10 9:26 PM

** Hot News **

 

    Software Tool & Die Inc is pleased to announce that they have released a major update to their STD Foundation Classes for the production version of PowerBuilder 12.0 Classic and PowerBuilder 12.NET build 5530. You can now enjoy the framework for Win32, Winform, Webform and WPF based environments.

Release 12.0.0 Changes ... May 20, 2010 - include:

1) Migrated code to PB 12 classic - GA, Build 5530
2) Added PBWPF conditional code.
3) Tested FC's with the OrderEntry sample application
4) Fixed Open LOG functionality under WPF
5) Fixed Zoom GPF error
6) Corrected menu support for response dialogs
7) Added new "Processor" tab on HELP dialog
8) Fixed Memory display on HELP dialog.
9) Changed code to support SA 11.0.1 DBMS
10) Converted to "EAS Demo DB V120" test database
11) Added support for new 12.NET application "skins".

Note: All PB 12 Classic. 12.Net, examples and utilities have now also been fully tested using Sybase's newest  beta of the SQLAnywhere 12 DBMS (along with SA 11.1 - latest production release).

    Along with the new framework for PB12, there are also new example applications that use the Foundation Classes and exploit the WPF world. All this and it's is free too! 

 

    I hope that the framework and example applications will enhance your PB 12.NET experience!

 Enjoy!

Regards ... Chris Pollach
President: STD Inc.
http://chrispollach.pbdjmagazine.com

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pbdj.sys-con.com | 5/25/10 3:26 AM

In an attempt to understand the art of caddying better, I carried the bag for the L.P.G.A. star Brittany Lincicome during the pro-am tournament Wednesday at the Sybase Match Play Championship in New J... story.venezuelastar.com | 5/24/10 6:00 AM

Sun Young Yoo’s first tournament victory after five years on the L.P.G.A. Tour came in the Sybase tournament in Gladstone, N.J. www.nytimes.com | 5/24/10 4:20 AM

Sun Young Yoo wins Sybase Match Play Championship, beating Angela Stanford 3 and 1



Sun Young Yoo - Angela Stanford - Golf - Yani Tseng - Jiyai Shin abcnews.go.com | 5/23/10 11:40 PM

AP - Sun Young Yoo won the Sybase Match Play Championship for her first LPGA Tour victory, beating Angela Stanford 3 and 1 on Sunday at Hamilton Farm.

us.rd.yahoo.com | 5/23/10 11:40 PM

Korea's Sun Young Yoo defeats Angela Stafford to win the inaugural Sybase Match Play Championship. news.bbc.co.uk | 5/23/10 11:37 PM

Sun Young Yoo of South Korea lines up her birdie putt on No. 16 Sunday in Sybase Match Play Championship in Gladstone, N.J. Yoo defeated Angela Stanford in the final match to claim her first LPGA vict... story.venezuelastar.com | 5/23/10 10:58 PM

GLADSTONE, N.J. (AP) -- Sun Young Yoo won the Sybase Match Play Championship for her first LPGA Tour victory, beating Angela Stanford 3 and 1 on Sunday at Hamilton Farm. www.nytimes.com | 5/23/10 10:47 PM

In addition Java and J2EE technologies, candidates should also have experience with: Data Synapse Grid Server Sybase 15 Informatica WebLogic Applicant must meet ALL of these requirements.

www.topix.net | 5/23/10 9:32 PM

Angela Stanford lines up her shot on the 16th green during the third round of the Sybase Match Play Championship golf tournament in Gladstone, New Jersey May 22, 2010.

www.topix.net | 5/23/10 4:30 PM

Two weeks ago SAP announced that it will acquire Sybase, the leading company for enterprise mobility.

www.topix.net | 5/23/10 2:28 PM

GLADSTONE, N.J. (AP) -- Top-ranked Jiyai Shin knocked out Michelle Wie in the Sybase Match Play Championship quarterfinals Saturday, winning 2 and 1 on another hot, humid day at hilly Hamilton Farm. www.nytimes.com | 5/22/10 11:31 PM

AP - Top-ranked Jiyai Shin knocked out Michelle Wie in the Sybase Match Play Championship quarterfinals Saturday, winning 2 and 1 on another hot, humid day at hilly Hamilton Farm. us.rd.yahoo.com | 5/22/10 11:24 PM

Catriona Matthew loses in the quarter-finals of the LPGA Tour's inaugural Sybase Match Play Championship. news.bbc.co.uk | 5/22/10 10:55 PM

Michelle Wie watches her tee shot on the 10th hole during the third round of the Sybase Match Play Championship. Wie beat Karine Icher 3 and 2 to reach the quarterfinals on Saturday afternoon. story.venezuelastar.com | 5/22/10 7:26 PM

Michelle Wie has a simple mindset for the Sybase Match Play Championship. "I'm just thinking of hitting fairways and greens, giving myself some birdie opportunities and keeping it in play," Wie said.

www.topix.net | 5/22/10 7:14 AM