In a  briefing on Friday, I learned about Sybase new “SQL Anywhere OnDemand Edition,” that in a press release the company says “provides cloud-specific tooling and features that allow ISVs to manage data for cloud applications that meet both their business needs and those of their customers.”

But what became quickly apparent was the effort to which SAP executives were making to show why SQL is a better alternative. For me it highlighted the importance that NoSQL has gained in the market and the balance SAP Sybase is trying to maintain with ISVs and its customers.

The argument from SAP Sybase goes like this. NoSQL means tradeoffs.  In particular is the tradeoff about customization. I found this revealing. ISVs have made billions, even trillions of dollars in doing customized work over the past 20 years. SQL allows for easier customization. In their view, customization is difficult when data is all in one environment as is the case with NoSQL solutions.

But the crux of the issue is this. ISVs are struggling with the management of data, which is increasingly of much greater scale, scattered across hundreds of databases. Their customers are asking about NoSQL, which is generally viewed as a next generation database environment. It is non-relational, distributed, open-source and horizontally scalable.

SAP Sybase says the better approach is to use its management tools for managing the hundreds of databases that they have to maintain. In that way data can continue to be kept isolated, which in their view, allows for better compliance.

The company says that SQL Anywhere OnDemand Edition “is the only cloud data management offering that allows an ISV to manage and scale an application’s underlying databases, while still providing the critical data security and governance that the ISVs’ customers demand. Sybase is able to meet both needs by providing a pragmatic approach that allows an ISV to maintain both tenant isolation and ease of management. As a result, SQLAnywhere OnDemand Edition allows vendors to build, deploy, and manage cloud applications without compromise, letting ISVs take advantage of the cloud’s economies of scale while ensuring their customers’ data is isolated from all other tenants.”

That sounds more like a hosted solution to me than one that is meant for the broader scaled out world of cloud computing.

Services Angle

SAP Sybase maintains that its SQL Anywhere OnDemand Edition is best suited for ISVs and their customers. They argue that the new product does not compromise customer demands for security and governance.

But it’s hard to refute the rise of NoSQL and its increasing importance in the enterprise. Evans Data Corp study reflects this.The big driver is in the need to manage big data effectively.

But the survey also supports SAP’s perspective about NoSQL. There is still hesitation to move sensitive data to the cloud. The trust level is not there.

SAP Sybase is making a smart play for the ISV market but I wonder at what cost. Young and innovative developers are embracing NoSQL as the modern choice for apps that scale horizontally. By downplaying NoSQL, they risk isolating this young community and in the process losing an edge with enterprise customers.