Startup Cloudscape Ey es Database Market

Talent drives a new approach to enterprise data

By John Foley

startup founded by a group of database industry veterans is putting the finishing touches on a Java-based object relational database.

Cloudscape Inc. in Oakland, Calif., plans to begin testing its system, called JBMS, next month and to ship it by year's end. JBMS will be marketed as an embedded database in third-party applications. Companies expressing interest in JBMS include Hygenic Software, JavaSoft, Neuron Data, Novera Software, OnDisplay, Scopus Technologies, Vision Software, and WebLogic.

The database, which requires only 1.5 Mbytes of memory, is intended to support distributed Java applications that run on PCs and mobi le computers. It works like a relational database, but it also handles nonrelational data such as images and documents. The database includes replication and a Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) interface, and supports stored procedures and triggers written in Java.

"It's an entirely different concept in databases," says Carolyn DiCenzo, an analyst with Dataquest Inc. in San Jose, Calif. "It has the potential for leveraging a whole range of applications that were not possible or manageable with existing technology."

Cloudscape has drawn on a wealth of talent in the database industry. Among its 20 employees are Howard Torf, VP of engineering and acting CEO, and Nat Wyatt, chief technology officer, both former Sybase developers. Stewart Schuster, one-time executive VP of Sybase, is Cloudscape's chairman as well as an investor.

Cloudscape's talent pool will serve it well, says Merv Adrian, an analyst with Giga Information Group, a technology advisory firm in Cambridge, Mass. "They have a really good s et of engineers," he says. "They are going to handle the question of data movement and object movement well."

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