Rob Veitch

It's a new year, a new millennium (give or take a year), and we've just released version 3.5 of the Sybase Enterprise Application Server. There's no better time to contemplate where we've been and where we're going. Since the first release of PowerBuilder, our mission has been to make it as easy as possible to develop and deploy business applications. In 1991 that meant building client/server applications using Windows for the client and any one of a dozen database systems for the back end. Then as now, businesses needed to take advantage of a computing revolution to ensure they would stay in business. Then as now, the major challenge facing IT was to meet a nearly unlimited demand for application development with very limited resources. As complex as client/server development seemed to many of us in the early '90s, that architecture looks relatively simple from today... (more)

Extending PowerBuilder Applications to the Web

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Rhode Island (BCBSRI) is one customer who's leveraged PowerBuilder and EAServer to develop an intranet solution. This application has provided BCBSRI with tremendous cost savings and enhanced performance. Using Data to Everyone's Advantage BCBSRI is the state's largest and only locally based health plan. Founded in 1939, BCBSRI provides health coverage for one out of every two Rhode Islanders. With more than 1,500 employees, it's also one of the 20 largest employers in the area. Customer-Driven Solutions BCBSRI is driven by the needs of its customers... (more)

Sybase Support for Open Standards Continues as J2EE Emerges

In some ways, the appearance of J2EE in the Java world is similar to the introduction of SQL to the database world. Prior to SQL, each vendor's search engine and approach was unique and hierarchical - in other words, a proprietary system that was inflexible and difficult to maintain. SQL and the relational model offered a standard, nonproprietary approach to storing and organizing data that supported the trend toward a client/server architecture. Similarly, Java and the Web have pushed the trend toward a distributed architecture with components running on an application server. J... (more)

The Unwired Enterprise

If you're looking for the next frontier in enterprise IT, look no further than your own hand. The combination of mobile phones, two-way pagers and powerful personal data assistants (PDA) with the fast and cheap wireless Internet is about to unleash a revolution in personal and enterprise computing. (Yes, that's right - another one! Are you ready?) By the end of the year industry leaders expect 20 million handheld device-based Internet users. The Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association predicts that by 2003 there will be one billion Internet-enabled handheld devices in us... (more)

Extending PowerBuilder Applications to the Web

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Rhode Island (BCBSRI) is one customer who's leveraged PowerBuilder and EAServer to develop an intranet solution. This application has provided BCBSRI with tremendous cost savings and enhanced performance. Using Data to Everyone's Advantage BCBSRI is the state's largest and only locally based health plan. Founded in 1939, BCBSRI provides health coverage for one out of every two Rhode Islanders. With more than 1,500 employees, it's also one of the 20 largest employers in the area. Customer-Driven Solutions BCBSRI is driven by the needs of its customers... (more)