Interesting Third-Party News Related To Centura Software:
In a Computer Reseller News article titled "VAR - Straight Talk About Partners"
published on November 18, 1996, Lynn Haber discusses VAR InterAccess
Corporation, a client/server solutions provider and applications developer,
and states that the VAR "is aligned closely with three vendors: Centura
Software, Microsoft Corporation, and Rational Software".
Andersen Consulting, rated by VARBusiness as #3 amongst the top 500
VARs, already has about 1,000 Java consultants, and about 3,000 SAP
enterprise software consultants assigned world-wide to the rapidly growing
business of integrating their customers' in-house systems, databases, etc.,
to the Internet. I consider this noteworthy for several reasons ===>
One, Andersen Consulting is also one of the leading VARs touting Centura's
new product line at various conferences.
Two, in a November 4, 1996 article in InformationWeek, titled "Web Tools,
Too Many Choices?", Alan Radding expresses his belief (widely held in the
industry!) that "For pure Web application development the choice will come
down to two primary platforms: Java or ActiveX; and Centura's new product
line not only supports *both*, but it also sports *native* interfaces to a
variety of databases including its own popular SQLwindows, and others by
Oracle, Informix, Sybase, DB2, and SAP.
Three, while Sun Microsystems, IBM, Netscape, and Microsoft are all also
at least *pledging* support for *both* platforms, one of Centura's main
competitors, Powersoft, has already announced that they do not plan to add
Java support to its popular PowerBuilder development tool - which Centura's
Team Developer is often compared with. Instead, Powersoft has announced
a new development environment, code-named Starbuck, that will allow
developers to create Java Beans, but it will not be available until the second
quarter of 1997 (or over a "year" behind Centura's in Internet time!).
And four, Informix, another one of Centura's competitors, has also announced a
new Java development tool, named Jworks, for building Web-based C/S
applications but will only allow the applications to access Informix databases,
and it will not be available until the first quarter of 1997.
Here are also some numbers pertaining to Centura's market position in 1995
that will be interesting to compare for 1996 if they are ever published. In a
July 8, 1996, article in World Electric Results titled "Borland Projects Loss
for Fourth Quarter", Elinor Mills includes the 1995 desktop development tool
revenues per vendor as follows ===>
Microsoft's Visual Basic = 34%
Powersoft's PowerBuilder = 28%
Borland's Delphi = 15%
Centura's SQLwindows = 12%
Others = 11%
And in closing, here is an interesting quote also related to Centura ===>
Alan Baratz, president of JavaSoft, was quoted earlier this year as stating
that "Centura's *unique architecture* will allow customers to start integrating
Java-based business applications with existing client/server applications at
their own pace". Centura has of course licensed JavaSoft's Java language
and has embedded the Java interpreter in a new version of Centura Team
Developer to be released sometime this quarter (in all likelihood during the
upcoming Internet World Conference). |
