The Sybase product line includes servers and tools for building servers:
Adaptive Server Enterprise is a database server. An Adaptive Server Enterprise manages information stored in one or more databases.
Open Server provides the tools and interfaces needed to create a custom server. A custom server built with Open Server is called an “Open Server application.”
An Open Server application can be any type of server. For example, an Open Server application can perform specialized calculations, provide access to real-time data, or interface with services such as electronic mail. You create an Open Server application using the building blocks provided by Open Server Server-Library.
Adaptive Server Enterprise and Open Server applications are similar in some ways:
Adaptive Server Enterprise and Open Server applications are both servers that respond to client requests.
Clients communicate with both Adaptive Server Enterprise and Open Server applications through Open Client libraries.
But they also differ:
An application programmer must create an Open Server application, using Open Server’s building blocks and supplying custom code. Adaptive Server Enterprise is complete and does not require custom code.
An Open Server application can be any kind of server, and can be written to understand any language. Adaptive Server Enterprise is a database server, and understands only Transact-SQL.
An Open Server application can communicate with “foreign” applications and servers that are not based on Sybase’s Tabular Data Stream™, or TDS, protocol. It can also communicate with Sybase applications and servers. Adaptive Server Enterprise can communicate directly only with Sybase applications and servers. To communicate with foreign applications and servers, Adaptive Server Enterprise must use an Open Server gateway application as an intermediary.
