The release of several new low-cost database servers should help promote NeXTSTEP's emerging role in enterprise computing.
Parabase Software (formerly IP Design) will release Gupta SQLBase Server, a data server popular among DOS and Windows users. It is targeted at Parabase users frustrated at spending several thousand dollars for Sybase or Oracle servers, said Robert Dyas, Gupta president. The NeXT-STEP-for-Intel version starts at $995.
Blue Rose Systems planned to release at Expo a low-cost SQL server starting at $395 called Rosebase. President M Carling, who heads the Bay Area NeXT Group, distinguishes Rosebase by emphasizing the importance of query-based decision support. "Sybase or Oracle servers have strengths in on-line transaction processing, but that's not why you'd run a server under NeXTSTEP."
Also due at Expo was QuickBase from SofDesign Solutions of Greenwich, Connecticut. Available to NeXTSTEP developers in beta form for a year, QuickBase will start at $695.
The most interesting entrant in the server race may be Borland International. Sources said that NeXT customer Abbott Labs contracted with Borland to port its Interbase database-management system to NeXTSTEP for Intel. With versions now finished for both 68040 and Intel NeXTSTEP, Borland is expected to market Interbase as the first distributed database server for NeXTSTEP.
Sybase SQL Server, which was included for free in early versions of NeXTSTEP, will not be offered for NeXTSTEP for Intel or other versions of NeXTSTEP. Sybase will, however, continue to supply NeXTSTEP client libraries for database developers.