Vanderbilt Industries

“At that time, access control and intrusion systems were standalone systems where you used a keypad on the wall,” said Andreas Di Meo, product owner for Omnis. “However, we were doing something where you could configure and monitor it using your PC, and we were looking for a solution that could be used as an embedded database engine.”

Gupta SQLBase fit the bill. It is a high-performance, automated and embedded database that allows organizations to manage data closer to the customer, where capturing and organizing information is critical. Gupta SQLBase provides a maintenance-free architecture with a small footprint, easy installation and high scalability.

“Omnis is server-based and accessed by the PC client. Our hardware connects to the server and that forms the access and intrusion system. We use OpenText Gupta SQLBase as the database engine for our server. It is really an embedded part of our software,” noted Di Meo.

“Omnis allows users to control hundreds or even thousands of security access points across the network from a single location to approximately 4,500 customers. It is a highly scalable system, and we have quite a few installations that are thousands of doors and access points or more,” Di Meo added.

The OpenText database has proven to be a reliable and worry-free solution for Vanderbilt. Requiring little support, the result is a low total cost of ownership (TCO) solution that has returned value to the business and its customers. For example, Gupta SQLBase offers easy licensing and deployment with an embedded deployment pack (EDP) option that contains a configuration tool to keep a running count of deployed licenses. EDP allows customers to take the database components from us and include that in their installers of the solution.

Vanderbilt has also benefited from the solution’s automated installation, configuration and maintenance features, which allow it to be installed and maintained with a just few mouse clicks.

“Over the last 20 years, the maintenance and stability of the OpenText Gupta SQLBase product has been very good. We really haven’t experienced any issues, which is always good for me in my role as the product owner,” said Di Meo. “My experience with using other database engines is that I probably would have had issues and a lot more troubleshooting than I have today.”

Gupta SQLBase’s easy integration with Omnis has provided additional benefits with an architecture that enables users to focus on the business application itself, rather than the underlying database technology.

“We appreciate that OpenText Gupta SQLBase is not something that an end customer can access,” Di Meo explained. “That is really beneficial compared to other experiences we have had with other products where customers can actually access the database and corrupt things. It’s also been our experience that the product doesn’t cause any conflicts with other applications installed on the same server, which might be the case if we were to use another product.”

Gupta SQLBase continues to deliver simplicity, scalability and dependability to Vanderbilt’s Omnis solution and its customers.

Di Meo commented, “I would say our experience with the OpenText solution has been very positive. No one has ever complained about our choice of database engine. I don’t see us changing to something else. We will continue to use OpenText Gupta SQLBase for years to come—it has always served us well.”

Looking to the future, Vanderbilt sees the security industry slowly moving toward mobile and cloud solutions. Di Meo observed, “It is not that many years ago that people used magnetic stripe cards to enter office buildings. Now, the industry is moving in the direction of mobile credentials and cloud solutions rather than local, on-premises installations.”

As Gupta SQLBase integrates with cloud solutions, Di Meo predicted, “The next step will be to do this in the cloud.”