Sybase Banks On Linux For Financial Apps

Earlier this month, the database vendor opened a Linux Competency Center in New York to help accelerate the testing and adoption of Linux- and Sybase-based applications in that space.

The Dublin, Calif.-based company first brought its RDBMS, now known as Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE), to Linux in 1999, but enterprise interest in the open-source operating system has only become serious in the past year, company executives said.

"In the last six to eight months, we've begun to see much more formalization of efforts on Linux platforms %85 in terms of committed projects and movement at senior levels," said Raj Nathan, senior vice president and general manager of the Infrastructure Platform Group at Sybase.

Kevin Clancy, vice president of sales at iMarkets, a New York-based Sybase partner that develops software for convertible bond management, said he expects more business from Sybase because of the presence it has in the financial community.

"The purpose [of the center] is to %85 provide partners an opportunity to showcase applications and [help them] port their applications to Linux and ASE or other Sybase products," Clancy said. For end users, the center presents an opportunity to see apps in realtime running on multiple Linux and Intel platforms such as those from SuSE, Red Hat, Hewlett-Packard and Dell Computer, he said.