Two-year-old Novell Inc spin-out Btrieve Technologies Inc is re-positioning its Scalable SQL and Btrieve 6.15 embedded databases for the development of packaged client-server applications. The databases are invisible to end-users when independent software vendors bundle them as back-end application components. CompuServe users do not know they are running Btrieve under the hood, for example. The company says its Client/Server in a Box program enables independent software vendors to create applications that support automatic installation and management of distributed components from a single workstation, multisystem client support out of the box, configuration management tools and maintenance-free operation. Why now and not sooner? Because in the small company space – of which there are some six million in the US alone – it points to research that suggests that currently no more than 20% of these companies are using client-server technology and of these, most have only one applicati on that fits this bill. Within 90 days Btrieve will also begin offering Web- and Intranet-enabled versions of the forthcoming Scalable SQL 4 relational database and Btrieve 6.15 releases using some of its own and some third party technologies. It says it will support HyperText Mark-up Language text and images and enable applications to be accessed from across the Internet by browsers or other applications. Btrieve is going to carve a Unix business out of these releases beginning with a Solaris implementation, also within 90 days. IBM Corp is currently funding Warp Server implementations of both. The next version of Btrieve will include the use of stored procedures and triggers brought over from the Scalable SQL 4 release. Btrieve, Scalab le SQL and the company’s Object DataBase Connectivity interface are built on company’s 32-bit, C++, multi-threaded, transaction processing-enabled microkernel. The company estimates there are 50,000 developers writing applications using its databases and some five million instances of their use. If you are running accounting, network services, human resource, health-care or manufacturing applications, the chance is you are running Btrieve under the hood, the company claims. Until last year, Btrieve ran exclusively on NetWare servers; its Windows NT Server implementation now accounts for around 40% of its server revenue. It supports multiple clients. It counts Sybase Inc’s desktop Watcom database technologies as its closest competition now that Gupta Corp is more focused on the front-end. Microsoft SQL Server is higher up in the food chain, it claims. Others include Faircom Inc and Raima Software Inc. The firm has 100 staff at its Austin, Texas headquarters, another 25 in Europe and Japan. It claims to be approaching profitability but says it wants to put several profitable quarters behind it before going for an initial public share offer sometime next year. It’s not seeking further venture capital funding beyond the $4m it raised last year (CI No 2,557). We’re a blue collar, practical play, not sexy, is the way Btrieve describes itself.
