Sybase Inc has gone to Unisys Corp for its URep object-oriented Universal Repository, and has agreed to license the software for future product development. The first product to incorporate Urep will be the Sybase Enterprise Application Studio, the company said. Enterprise Application Studio, unveiled at the PowerSoft User Conference last month, is a set of development tools designed to enable companies to build and deploy distributed, web and client/server applications. It includes Sybase’s existing PowerBuilder and PowerJ development tools, plus a third, new component called the Enterprise Application Server. An updated version, codenamed Vineyard, is due out early next year and will enable developers to run old Powerbuilder applications on the company’s newer Jaguar server for web applications. The addition of URep is intended to simplify distributed application development by integrating information about multiple applications into one interface. Sybase says Urep will be the foundation of its repository strategy, something its been far less vocal about than many of its database competitors. Unisys introduced URep in 1995, basing it on Versant Object Technology Corp’s object database (CI No 2,666). BEA Systems Inc licensed the product last October for use with its middleware products.
