SAP has been the odd bird in the nest of BI without a mainstream database of its own.  No longer.  With SAP's smart acquisition of Sybase, they gain a wealth of tried and true technology and a devoted user community that is concentrated in Banking and Finance.  Sybase IQ has quietly led the market in columnar-style databases and analytic data structures. This appliance / database sector has been frenzied and volatile of late with mergers and acquisitions.  It was always odd to me that no one had yet elected to dance with Sybase, one of the stalwart players.  In recent months SAP has started to seem less compelling as it struggled to keep its partnership and co-opetition model under control.  IBM and Oracle are not friends, but have been a necessary evil without an SAP-owned database.

Clearly SAP now enters the realm of Business Intelligence and Performance Management without having to rely on IBM and Oracle to deliver an acceptable database solution. The more conservative markets have their favorites and breaking new ground is difficult.  Sybase has been acceptable in the past and can be so once again.  It also means that the alternate database companies will have a newly revitalized formidable competitor in their midst.  I have seen Sybase IQ compete favorably against all the major database platforms including the new analytical engines.  SAP has changed the game.  I, for one, am looking forward to see how this plays out.