Proprietary tools users have already had to lament the lack of openness, the high price and the complexity of these tools. Now they’re facing another risk: acquisition.Announced in March 2009, Sybase ETL is now only available to Sybase IQ (Sybase’s analytics server offer) users. This means that ETL load targets can only be a Sybase IQ instance. Even if it is quite evident that only Sybase IQ users will use the Sybase ETL, they won’t be able to use it for others things, such as exporting data to others parts of their information system. This isn’t that unusual. So they’ll have to deploy another ETL. And why not a third, if the second one only works with red or blue targets? One tool for one target – the return of hand-coded, heavy EAI systems…

In 2006, when Sybase took over Solonde (an ETL developed in Germany and certified for SAP integration) the company promised that it would keep the tool open. Yet barely 3 years after the acquisition, Sybase ETL – Solonde’s new name – is totally closed.

We don’t know exactly how many customers Sybase ETL has. According to a press release, 1500 companies use Sybase IQ. So even if the number of companies stuck with this solution is low, the announcement still carries a whiff of scandal. What if your car dealer required you to only buy gas in its own facilities? Yes, I know, some coffee machine manufacturers have begun to do it, but is that really the way the tide is turning? And particularly in the IT market – what would happen if a big leader in the database market (let’s say one with a red logo, for example) decided to adopt the same strategy for the ETL tool (another European vendor…) that it acquired some years ago?

This kind of announcement is really unacceptable. Of course, these shackled users will have yet another reason to consider open source alternatives, which is good for companies like Talend. But, philosophically, in a period where open source and traditional software makers join force to give concrete expression to interoperability, this kind of announcement sounds very odd. Maybe it’s the cry of the dying dinosaurs?

Bertrand