By Tony Hallett, 5 June 2003 16:29
NEWS Sybase is to put $25m behind Wi-Fi initiatives as part of a major push in the wireless market. The database vendor has long been known for a focus on wireless, mainly through its iAnywhere subsidiary. Now it will collaborate with "leading research universities and industry partners". Its first 'Wi-Fi competency centre' will be at the Research and Technology Park at the University of Waterloo. Referring to a recent high-profile acquisition, Sybase CEO John Chen said in a statement: "We offer the largest mobile content service in the world, with over eight million registered users of My AvantGo. Our new initiative will use that expertise to meet the enormous pent-up demand for reliable enterprise Wi-Fi applications that deliver measurable ROI." Wi-Fi, based on the IEEE 802.11b standard, allows wireless networking at speeds of up to 11Mbps within about 100m of an access point. Although there has been considerable hype about public Wi-Fi 'hotspots' many companies are using them internally, and it is this investment Sybase is looking to exploit. Jack Gold, VP at analyst house Meta Group, said that although many companies see potential in using Wi-Fi many are still confused about issues including security, application persistence and ease of deployment/use.
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