Sybase CEO reveals mobile strategy

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Chen was in very upbeat mode as he addressed the 1600 delegates. While not promising any further acquisitions he did make it clear that Sybase has just had its most profitable quarter and year on record. It is also sitting on over US$1bn in the bank that suggests the recent buying spree is not yet over.

The subtext of Chen's keynote was about unwiring the enterprise. There are two parts to this emphasis. The first is about making the most of the acquisitions of companies such as AvantGo and Extended Systems. The second is that according to a recent Computerworld survey, Security, Mobility and Wireless are the most important requirements for IT directors today.

"Sybase", Chen told the audience "is seeing five major growth areas drivers:

Explosive data growth - which is doubling almost every two years.

Wireless access ubiquity - in less than five years Sybase expects that more that 80% of all mobile devices will be a converged device. Most of this growth is being driving from Europe with the US lacking substantially behind the rest of the world.

Proliferation of mobile devices - the separation between SmartPhones, PDA's and Blackberry is rapidly disappearing.

Demand for real time information - the industry has been promising this for over 30 years now and is only just delivering on the promise.

SOA and Mobility development paradigm - there is a lot of confusion over different models. While the terminology is getting fancier the content isn't."

Chen went on to point to more benefits to Sybase of its acquisition strategy by stressing that for the first time in several years email and collaboration has become more important that ERP. With new products due from the Extended Systems acquisition and new announcements expected this week from the iAnywhere team, Sybase expects to reap significant rewards. Chen also believes that unlike many of its larger competitors, Sybase has positioned itself as the leader in this area.

Another important change for Sybase has been that its developer base has shown a remarkable recovery over the last five years with registered developer numbers almost quadrupling over that period. Something that few other software companies can point to. Much of this Chen puts down to the ability of Sybase to maintain its agnosticism between Java and .NET. Looking forward, this might just be difficult to maintain given Sybase's support for Eclipse.

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