With approximately 2,100 attendees from 36 countries here, TechWave this year has drawn a record number of top level sponsors, reflecting the company's focus on partners. Platinum sponsors are Intel, SAP and Sun; Gold are Bradmark, BMC Software and Hewlett Packard; and Silver are Appeon and RIM. The 10th sponsor is ISUG, the International Sybase User Group, where SYS-CON Media and PBDJ – PowerBuilder Developer’s Journal are lead media sponsors.

ASE 15 Will Formally Launch on September 15
The buzz this year is around the impending formal launch of ASE 15-on September 15-in London, Beijing and New York. Delegates will be getting a sneak preview this week at TechWave.

“Sybase ASE has always given the most bang for the buck. With ASE 15.0, we’re taking another giant step forward,” says Dr. Raj Nathan, senior vice president and general manager, ITSG, Sybase. "Now, with ASE 15, we're taking another giant step forward," says Nathan, who'll be describing what that means on Tuesday during his keynote.

Most people know that the current release of ASE is 12.5 and some Sybase customers, like Philip Howard of Bloor Research, will be asking why jump past both 13 and 14? Well, one answer could be that version 15 is appropriate since this is the 15th anniversary of ASE. But this isn't the case, there is more to do, like associations with the numbers 13 and 14. “As most of us in the West know, the number 13 is considered by many to be unlucky and in the East, especially in China, the number 14 is considered by many to be inauspicious,” reports Chris Forsyth of Sybase in his welcome letter posted on Sunday, August 21, 2005.

Unlucky or not, Howard was impressed with ASE 15, extolling the new generation enterprise database with its "expanded security capabilities, including new data encryption features" in his July 8 IT-Analysis.com article. “ASE 15.0 arrives with internal enhancements to keep data moving at the highest possible velocity while minimizing the server’s need for performance tweaks, thus lowering the total cost of ownership (TCO). ” In the Trenches with Adaptive Server Enterprise 15.0 - The DBA’s Look at the New Features.

While you'll be hearing a lot about ASE 15 during the conference, you'll also be able to read a new book, In the Trenches with Adaptive Server Enterprise 15.0 .- The DBAs Look at the New Features. Its authors-senior DBAs with Nielsen Media Research, long a Sybase customer-are Brian Taylor, Carrie King Taylor, Naresh Adurty and Steve Bradley. Their insights derive from their long experience with ASE over the years and Nielsen's more recent beta testing of ASE 15.

Addressing changes you'll see in ASE 15, the authors say: "Many of these changes are designed to increase the database server's ability to handle a high volume and wide variety of data while responding with greater velocity." They add: "ASE 15 arrives with internal enhancements to keep data moving at the highest possible velocity while minimizing the server's need for performance tweaks, thus lowering the total cost of ownership (TCO)."

If you want to hear more from them, they're holding two sessions during the conference. Both are at 3:30 p.m., one on Monday, the other on Wednesday in room Roman 1. At a high level, they'll explain each new feature and how it fits into the Sybase roadmap.

This year’s conference is designed around the expectations from attendees, as John Chen, Sybase chairman, CEO and President, says in his welcome letter in the conference program guide.

PBDJ Bloggers Covering TechWave Live!
Reed Shilts, Ian Thain, Berndt Hamboeck, Chris Pollach, and PBDJ editor-in-chief Bruce Armstrong in his Team Sybase blog will be covering this year’s Tech Wave live for PBDJ readers.

Ian Thain, Sybase’s PocketPowerBuilder evangelist and the author of the upcoming SYS-CON book, “Secrets Of The Masters: Pocket PowerBuilder” has already posted a number of entries in his blog upon his arrival to Las Vegas. “OK, so today was the first day of pre conference training and we had good numbers for all sessions. The attendees for the PK class have received their HP RX2415's and discussions during the course have been excellent. The attendees even installed the TW2005 Conference App on their brand new devices :-)”

Bruce Armstrong’s TechWave blog entry says: “Pompeian Ballroom in the Palace Tower around 3:30 on Sunday the 21st. Four TeamSybase members (Millard Brown, Terry Voth, Mike Nicewarner and myself) will do battle against a team from Sybase employees. Each team will take turns answering multiple choice questions off a Jeopardy style game board. The questions will be about 50% Sybase engineering related and the rest from other walks of life. There will be two rounds with a tie-breaker question just in case. The audience will have handhelds and play along. They will have a chance to win some cool prizes (30 GB iPods, PSP’s and Optic Nerve Sunglasses are up for grabs) at the end of each round (so to the audience it is really two games). Jonathan Baker (Sybase) is the emcee and “impartial” judge.”

Reed Shilts blog reads: “I'm only taking 3 PDA's (well 4 counting my phone), a GPS receiver, a barcode scanner, and a RFID scanner.  Don't forget my laptop (not the tablet, but the "old" laptop). Getting all that through airport security for my 7am flight on Friday.... Then Ian and I will be setting up on Friday, teaching Saturday & Sunday (all day!), then a busy week - my calendar is FULL for the week of TechWave.”