DBMS Client/Server Connection - April 1995 DBMS Client/Server Connection - April 1995VMark Software Inc. (Westboro, Mass.) and Easel Corp. (Burlington, Mass.) announced in January that they have signed a definitive agreement to merge. Under the terms of the agreement, Easel shareholders will exchange their shares for approximately 1,350,000 shares of VMark common stock (at an exchange ratio of one share of VMark stock for approximately 4.7 shares of Easel stock). Company representatives expect the merger to be completed in the second quarter of 1995.
The VMark/Easel combination represents a synergy of products,
services, and sales channels, according to James J. Capeless,
president and CEO of VMark. VMark supplies DBMSs and services,
while Easel brings object-oriented and client/server application
development tools to the table. "We will use VMark's customer-driven
infrastructure to leverage Easel's technology, reputation, and
expertise in establishing a leadership position in the object-oriented
application development marketplace," says Capeless. VMark
Software Inc., 508-366-3888; Easel Corp., 617-221-2100.
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In January, Oracle Corp. (Redwood Shores, Calif.) Founder and CEO Larry Ellison debuted Workgroup/2000, a product family composed of new desktop and workgroup versions of the Oracle7 database, middleware, development tools, and connectivity software. Workgroup/2000 includes: Personal Oracle7, a standalone subset of the Oracle7 enterprise database server; Oracle7 Workgroup Server, a database designed for workgroups and departments; Oracle Power Objects (a.k.a. Project X), an application development environment; Oracle Objects for OLE, a middleware facility that enables Visual Basic, C++, and OLE-enabled applications to access Oracle7 data; and Oracle Radio Agents, a client-side API that shields developers from multiple communications protocols.
According to Ellison, these products provide users with a database and development solution that is now scalable from the desktop to the enterprise. And Oracle Power Objects throws the company directly into the ring against Sybase/Powersoft, its main competitor.
All Workgroup/2000 products can be downloaded from Oracle's World Wide Web Server (http://www.oracle.com) for a free trial period or purchase. (However, some disgruntled Internet users say that the downloading process is excruciatingly slow.)
During Oracle's Yokohama, Japan press event (held jointly in San
Francisco via satellite), Ellison expressed condolences to the
people of Japan (the earthquake in Kobe occurred just days before),
and announced that Oracle would donate approximately $100,000
to the relief effort. Oracle Corp., 415-506-7000.
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In January, four business software vendors formed an advocacy association dedicated to creating guidelines for online analytical processing (OLAP Ñ a fancy term for multidimensional analysis). Not surprisingly, founding members include providers of OLAP server technology: Arbor Software Corp. (Sunnyvale, Calif.), Comshare Inc. (Ann Arbor, Mich.), IRI Software (Waltham, Mass.), and Pilot Software (Cambridge, Mass.). The Council's goal is to create a specification of a standard object for multidimensional navigation through data stored on an OLAP server. The group will continue to oversee development of this standard as industry experts and OLAP customers solidify the object definition and associated API calls.
However, many industry analysts, including the Gartner Group and the Meta Group, have given the OLAP Council the thumbs down, saying that it is nothing more than a marketing ploy. Council members all have a stake in the success of Arbor Software's Essbase multidimensional server as an engine standard. Conversely, the Meta Group has stated that RDBMSs supporting time-series data types, object extensions, and so on are appropriate data stores for OLAP.
SAS Institute (Cary, N.C.), which participated in the formative stages of the OLAP Council, elected to withdraw because of the sponsoring vendors' requirement that proprietary multidimensional databases be positioned as the principal enabling technology for OLAP. Other decision-support and EIS vendors, including Holistic Systems (Edison, N.J.) have announced that they do not support the Council for the same reason.
DBMS will have a soup-to-nuts article on OLAP technology in an
upcoming issue. For more information about the OLAP Council, call
800-474-6527.
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Andersen Consulting (Chicago) announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office awarded a patent for its Foundation for Cooperative Processing (FCP) application development environment. FCP consists of three components: FCP Design, which provides repository-based tools for creating, storing, retrieving, editing, and prototyping system specifications; FCP Construction tools, which generate applications that run across client/server networks; and FCP Production, an execution architecture that lets generated applications run on heterogeneous platforms. The company is not specific about what, exactly, is unique and patentable.
Seer Technologies Inc. (Cary, N.C.) has also been awarded a U.S.
patent for technology that supports the design, implementation,
and maintenance of partitioned client/server software. The patent
grants Seer the right to prevent competitors from including the
technology in their products. Andersen Consulting, 312-580-0069;
Seer Technologies Inc., 919-380-5000.
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Several companies have posted their 1994 year-end results, and
here are a few of the stand-outs: SAP America Inc. (Philadelphia),
a provider of vertical applications software, announced fiscal
revenues of more than $1.1 billion, with a net income of $173.5
million (up a whopping 92 percent from last year). Sybase Inc.
(Emeryville, Calif.) reported revenues of $694 million (a net
income of $75 million, up 70 percent from 1993). Wall Data Inc.
(Kirkland, Wash.), a provider of connectivity software products,
posted a net income of $7 million, up 49 percent from last year.
VMark Software Inc. (Westboro, Mass) reported that its net income
increased 46 percent to almost $7 million. And, finally, Progress
Software Corp. (Bedford, Mass.), which recently announced the
acquisition of Crescent Software Inc. (a supplier of add-on software
for Visual Basic-based application development) announced that
its 1994 net income increased 12 percent to $14.4 million.
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