My distaste for REDB comes first hand from having to maintain a DW architecture that utilized REDB as the database. We had twice as many DBA and support staff supporting a REDB DW for 20 staff, than we had supporting the production systems for over 3000 staff. The total-cost-of-ownership and return-in-investment for REDB is very bad.
Sybase is in the midst of a 3-year train wreck while management and you continue to offer excuse after excuse as to why it's happened and how THIS quarter will be different.
I have never offered any excuses as to Sybase's revenue short falls or company management strategies. The shortfalls are very well documented in the trades and on wall street. My Sybase stock has taken a hit just like everybody else. My debates and support for Sybase has always been from a technology standpoint.
The biggest management mistake made by Sybase management with regard to databases was to not include row-level-locking back in the early 90's. RLL has nothing to do with DW databases, but negeatively impacted Sybase since 1992.
SAP came to Sybase first when they wanted to port their applications from VSAM databases to RDBMS databases. SAP need RLL in order to make the switch without re-writing their code. Sybase management said you need to re-write the code. SAP said let's go talk to Oracle.
I'm happy to say Sybase now offers RLL in its enterprise OLTP database. Peoplesoft, BAAN, and Lawson are certifing their applications on the RLL version. Unfortunately, SAP still hasn't come around.
What's Red Brick's biggest hurdle? REDB nolonger has a technological edge over the other RDBMS vendors. Their star schema, dimensions, bit-indexing are now supported by all major DB vendors. The mMajority of Red Bricks sales are to existing Red Brick customers. They are attracting very few customers that are "new".
However, how can you say the company continues to pump money into R&D with nothing to show for it when UNBIASED industry analysts agree that REDB has excellent technology.
Advanced technology is what afforded Red Brick its growth and dominance in its early years. They have lost that edge. If the large investment in R&D (percentage wise much higher than its competitors) results in a technological advancement that leapfrogs the competition then REDB could survive and grow. If you take a look at the latest 5.1 release the gains are in DW adminstration not performance.
Oracle and Informix sell most of their DW databases to existing customers as well.
Sybase's IQ sales are going to existing Oracle, Informix, and Sybase customers. Sybase's IQ product brings a completely new infrastructure and patented technology advancements to data warehousing. Sybase IQ is the second hottest selling DB technology at Sybase with respect to number of licenses. It trails only the Adaptive Server Anywhere mobile DB product. Sybase IQ's technology break throughs are what provide it with, what I believe to be, the fastest growing customer base in the DW industry.
However, how can you say the company continues to pump money into R&D with nothing to show for it when UNBIASED industry analysts agree that REDB has excellent technology.
Advanced technology is what afforded Red Brick its growth and dominance in its early years. They have lost that edge. If the large investment in R&D (percentage wise much higher than its competitors) results in a technological advancement that leapfrogs the competition then REDB could survive and grow.
Further, I know people in the Data Warehousing business at Sybase that freely admit that REDB is a tough competitor with excellent technology.
Red Brick is a tough competitor, but which product is winning the sale. Going head-to-head Sybase IQ beats Red Brick 9 out of 10 times. Sybase IQ has an installed customer base of 450 customers that is growing at 10% per quarter. Red Bricks customer base is 70% the size of Sybase IQ. Sybase IQ has only been around for 2 years. Red Brick has been around for 6+ years.
Additionally, I was told last weekend that Data Warehousing sales reps at Sybase are leaving in flocks. The company is imploding yet you never discuss these issues. John Chen has brought in Pyramid execs by the dozens.
- Funny, Sybase doesn't have data warehouse sales reps.; Account reps. sell the complete set of database and middleware offerings.
- Can't speak to implosion. John Chen has brought in 3-5 managers over from Siemans-Pyramid at all levels. A good CEO wnats to work with people he knows and trusts.
Sybase is the company in immediate danger of becoming irrelevant as a stand-alone entity.
I doubt that Sybase will become irrelevent. Yes, Sybase may be boughtout and merged with another company. Buyouts and mergers only happen when your company has something others want or need. The fact that companies like IBM, and MSFT have been named potential suitors for Sybase is because of its high quality products and services. This is an endorsment for Sybase technologies not a negative.
Haven't heard any such rumors related to Red Brick, have you.
I guess I'd like to see you offer positives and negatives for BOTH companies...
I would if I could find any positive industry and new sales information about REDB. Go to the REDB web site, all of their customer stories are at least 18 month old. Either the products aren't selling or the marketing department got laid-off. Sybase also suffers from stealth marketing techniques, but not this bad. A previous poster provided some reference that were also old but more recent than REDB offered. Bad news was he had to go to the HP site to get them. REDB needs to put itself in a positive light. Positive industry analyst comments and new customer success stories are what's needed. The customer references should be very easy if their customer base is growing.
Go to Sybase's web site and you'll find many new customer references for their products. Management has been the biggest problem at Sybase. John Chen has only been on board 8 months, I'm hoping his changes will payoff. REDB problems are management and product related. |
