Other than always available data, synchronization of data from device to back-end systems and vice-versa should be a must for Mobile Information workers. This enables the worker to make immediate decisions, capture data at source and give them the competitive edge in the current recovering economic climate. Adding the capability of Location Based Applications and data onto that package will make extremely powerful Enterprise Mobile Applications.

On March 22, 2010 at the ESRI Worldwide Business Partner Conference & Developer Summit in Palm Springs CA, Sybase announced advanced spatial data functionality as part of the next release of SQL Anywhere, our database and synchronization solution. This release makes Sybase the first vendor to enable development of data-driven spatial applications for leading smartphone devices and synchronize the on-device spatial data with spatial databases, application servers and enterprise systems, as I stated above.

David Sonnen, IDC's consultant for Spatial Information Management said, "We expect the Spatial Information Management market to continue to grow at a healthy, compound annual rate over the next several years,  Spatially-enabled Sybase SQL Anywhere addresses the occasionally-connected environment gap that exists in the spatial market today.”. I couldn't agree more with David, by leveraging these new capabilities, organizations in key markets such as utilities, telecommunications, manufacturing and government are able to provide mobile field workers with access to detailed spatial information combined with business critical data in a robust and scalable way.

If you would like to see a preview of the next major release of SQL Anywhere, available the second half of 2010, and to learn more about the new spatial functionality, apply to participate in the beta program at www.sybase.com/sqlanywhere