Sybase has announced yet another record revenue result for the third quarter of 2009.  Like other leading data management firms, its database business demonstrated continuing vitality in a difficult economic period. With 32% growth in database licensing revenues against a strong year over year comparison, the venerable DBMS provider continued a string of recent strong results.

A 30% operating margin was icing on the cake; John Chen has proved to be a careful steward for the firm as it has carefully navigated a changing environment for its database, mobile middleware, and messaging businesses. Although Europe is still not strong, Sybase's steady inroads in Asia, particularly China, continue to be a spur to growth, and John Chen called out the strong US Federal business as a key contributor as well.

Chen was upbeat about the future, indicating that the pipeline looks good and raising the guidance for Wall Street to suggest that the company will achieve another record in Q4. Expect to see a  little more presence from the surviving "tier 1.5" database vendor - but not enough. Sybase continues to hide its light under a bushel, ceding too much mindshare to noisier competitors. Perhaps in 2010 we'll see a rampup in visibility, but I'm not counting on it. And with these results, maybe they've got it right. Still, one can't help but wonder: what if they made some noise?