What is most valuable?
It is difficult to say which features are most valuable for me. I believe that any set of features are valuable and that depends on specific intent and situations, but only simplicity of use has a high value in any case.
How has it helped my organization?
ASE is designed primarily for use on high-end servers and, according to Sybase, is especially good at handling online transaction processing (OLTP) workloads. Unfortunately, I cannot share any further information regarding how my organization uses the product.
What needs improvement?
In my view, this product is underrated and needs more aggressive/active advertising in the business world. I believe that SAP started it on the right way when they optimized SAP ASE 16 for SAP Business Suite applications, because this can help businesses to improve operational efficiency and significantly reduce overall costs.
For how long have I used the solution?
The first time I was faced with RDBMS Sybase ASE was in 2005; before that, I worked with Oracle databases. My acquaintance with Sybase ASE was very unique. I worked for a financial institution on a developer position, where my task at that time was to create software that allowed people without strong IT skills to migrate from v12 to v15 in around 160 branches. For this reason, I started to learn the Sybase database and DBA routines before really starting my main task. Since 2005, I have worked very closely with Sybase ASE 12.0 & 12.5 as a developer and later, after migration to version 15.X, as a database administrator. At the same time, I was acting as chief of the relevant department.
What was my experience with deployment of the solution?
I have not had any very serious issues (mostly on Windows platform), but if all the required pre-installation/deployment steps are performed with accuracy, then the DBA/System Administrator probably will not encounter any issues during installation/deployment.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Yes, but only one time. The issue was related with a Java applet that was run on the same server as the database. An error in the applet-code caused, from time to time, another instance of the to applet run. A gradual rise in memory that the applets used led to us running out of memory that the database server demands.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I did not encounter any issues with scalability. The system allows you to easily scale the amount of users, data and transactions for very large database environments.
How are customer service and support?
Customer Service:
It's not bad; I can’t say that there has been anything significant.
Technical Support:
I would rate the level of technical support as mostly very good. Whenever I needed help/advice from support, I received it on time.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
In most cases businesses choose software products that they need for daily business activity; unfortunately, a database in most cases is not an option. Within my recollection, there was only one time in the company that I worked for in the past that changed business software as well as the database related to it.
How was the initial setup?
In my view, the official initial setup guide is very well-documented and anyone can find this information on 'The SyBooks Online' infocenter (definitive source for Sybase documentation on the internet). As a result, the initial setup is very straightforward in most cases. However, some difficulty can be experienced with the SAP ASE servers that are configured with a failover in a high availability system, but most companies don't use this very often.
What was our ROI?
I believe that Sybase ASE, can help enterprises advance through operational efficiencies and significantly increase ROI in today’s operational climate of big data, voluminous users and massive online transactions, when businesses need a leading-edge database system to keep them moving full speed ahead on path possible irregularities.
What other advice do I have?
This product has my complete confidence. ASE is very reliable and an easy-to-maintain product, with far reaching functionality and a cost which is less than other similar products. I believe that in the foreseeable future I could rate this product 10/10, but now it should be a little bit less.
My advice concerning not only this product, but any product, is to be honest and don't be prejudiced into making a decision about a product because of the vendor's reputation. Businesses should make the choice not based on general tendency, but on real needs. I believe you already follow it if you chose SAP ASE.
*Disclosure: My company does not have a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer.
