With Syclo acquisition SAP makes a course correction

[Former Member]

A few years ago, I had an opprotunity to participate in a day long SAP event where one of the key SAP Mobility Executives presented SAP's new mobility strategy with a joke that we are revising it for the 7th time in as many years. Well, it definitely made the audience such as me giggle who had been following SAP's mobility strategy since the days of SAPConsole and Mobile Engine.

With Sybase and now Syclo it would be the 9th revision or more if you still care to count. So how many attempts does it take to get it right?

Anyhow, when I heard the news yesterday, I was scratching my head and asking a question, why? With Sybase acquisition, I thought SAP had provided a clear path forward for customers and partners. SAP had also been aggressively marketing SUP and sold licenses in millions. Not to mention they paid a boat load of money for Sybase.

Both Syclo and Sybase offers competing technology and solutions in the same space so what is the real game plan here.

Did SAP realize they made a mistake with Sybase acquisition and that they should have gone with Syclo in the first place? Do they just want to keep Oracle away from Syclo? Or do they intend to acquire new customers with this deal (Sprint - Nextel type merger)? Will they offload Sybase and just keep Syclo?

SAP is yet to fully integrate SUP with Netweaver architecture and it would be interesting to know how they plan to integrate now Syclo in this mix.

I hope we would hear more on this from SAP over the coming weeks and months. Meanwhile I am certain this is going to create more confusion for customers and partners. I am also afraid many of the SUP projects/pilots may be put on hold until dust settles down and a clear (not vague) direction is provided from SAP. Existing SAP/Syclo customers would certainly be feeling energized though.

Bottom line: customers and partners now face a daunting task of updating their own SAP mobility strategy - for the 9th time perhaps?

(Please share your opinion and comments)