SQL Anywhere Tech Summit - 2017?

[justin_willey]

I know many of the participants of the last SQL Anywhere Tech Summit in 2014 found it very valuable. Especially in view of the lack of SQL Anywhere content at other SAP events (at CeBIT last year no-one I could find on the SAP stand had even heard of SQL Anywhere), is there any prospect of a similar event soon?

I appreciate that it is a considerable commitment, especially in time, to organise such things but ...

Justin Willey

[Michael_Fischer]

Justin,

You are probably asking for something in the U.S. or Canada, right?

Our company is planning to organize either a one day technical summit or a 3-date-road show with SAP in Germany this autumn. We already held such an info day toghether with SAP last year. As we will be discussing the content during the next weeks, I wonder how many users here would be interested in a two day conference in Germany this autumn?

Kind regards,

Michael

[justin_willey]

I'd certainly be interested in an event in Germany. The only issue would be language - can SAP run to translators?

[Breck_Carter]

Well, if SAP handled German-to-English, you could handle the last mile yourself, with the Scottie Translator 🙂

[VolkerBarth]

Last year's one-day event was held in German language (and I guess the attendees were mainly Germans, too), except the first presentation, which was (IIRC) kind of mixture of German and English, which was no problem, either.

Michael, would it be of help when potential attendees for an upcoming event could tell here whether they would accept German and/or English as conference language?

Justin, Scotch then for the evening:)

[Breck_Carter]

@Michael Fischer: I assume you are talking about the SAP SQL Anywhere 2016 Developer Day described here.

Feel free to openly discuss and promote your next event in this forum... please!

The future of SQL Anywhere now lies almost entirely in the hands of SAP customers, third-party vendors and independent service providers... that's not necessarily a bad thing, it's just a thing 🙂

[VolkerBarth]

Yep, that was the agenda of last year's event.

[huber1]

How can I interpret the statement "The future of SQL Anywhere now lies almost entirely in the hands of SAP customers, ..." Unfortunately, I do not understand what is meant by this. Why is the future of the database not so much in the hands of SAP?

Regards, Robert

[Breck_Carter]

It's a money thing. "Sybase Stealth Marketing" has been expanded to include "SAP Stealth Sales" and "SAP Stealth Partner Support".

In the past 24 hours I have talked with one client who might have to delay V16 HA installation because they can't get a return phone call about license keys, and another who can't upgrade their clients from V9 and V12 to V16 because they can't get follow-through on their upgraded OEM license so they can't get access to the V16 EBFs.

Their experiences are the new normal. They aren't going to stop using SQL Anywhere because SAP doesn't care about their business, they're going to carry on, and so am I... that's what I mean by the future lying in the hands of the customers.

It's not good thing, or a bad thing, it's just a thing.

For SQL Anywhere customers, the product bestows a competitive advantage. It doesn't just enable efficient solutions, it's like having a cloaking device for your intellectual property. Say "I'm using SQL Anywhere" out loud and your enemies have no idea what you're talking about... or they think you're an idiot... either way, you're safe 🙂

[huber1]

Thanks. I unterstand now what you meant. I also hat to fight hard to get acces to EBFs and renew licenses. That ist not normal to me.

[Breck_Carter]

...but "fight hard" is the new normal. You may hear statements to the contrary from some folks inside SAP; some will be spin, and some will be heartfelt, but the corporate direction remains clear: SQL Anywhere sales will not be promoted, and SQL Anywhere partners will not be supported.

...or you could switch to the dark side, er, SQL Server, I mean HANA! 🙂

[Michael_Fischer]

I don't want to sound rude, guys, but this is nonsense. Ultralite and Mobilink are an integral part of the SCP strategy. And at least I can say that our company does get some support from the OEM team here in Germany. Right now, we are planning for an event this autumn. And this was the reason I answered to Justin. The topic is: technical summits. I kindly request everybody interested in general Sybase and SAP marketing issues to open their own thread. Just my five cents.

[Breck_Carter]

We would all love it to be nonsense 🙂

...and it's very good news that you get some support from the OEM team in Germany, and that UltraLite and MobiLink are an integral part of the SAP Cloud Platform strategy (UltraLite, of course, being an alternative to SQL Anywhere).