If your enterprise relies on SAP Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE), then uncertainty is a big part of your experience.
Does this sound familiar? SAP announces End of Mainstream Maintenance (EoMM) for ASE, no roadmap in sight, and just when everyone starts planning migrations or sunsets, boom — SAP extends support and teases another potential version somewhere down the line. Then rinse and repeat. It’s a cycle that keeps teams in limbo, always waiting on clarity that never quite arrives.
With version 16.1 having only been launched in February 2025 – more than a decade after ASE 16.0 came out – SAP is showing no urgency to modernize this aging platform. A subscription model rollout, and virtually no other innovations, accounts for the lone update.
For organizations that still depend on Sybase for mission-critical applications, SAP’s inability to move at the speed of its customers, plus lack of a clear roadmap for v17, raises pressing concerns. Serious issues that Sybase ASE users must consider include:
security vulnerabilities
potential compliance violations
rising maintenance costs once official support disappears
Contemplating EoMM for Sybase estates can be sobering, but there’s a silver lining: Sybase-dependent enterprises are actually on the cusp of a huge opportunity.
Cockroach Labs is helping them to leverage the significant upside of database modernization. Migrating to the distributed SQL database CockroachDB gives organizations global scale and unmatched resilience, to power always-on applications running in the cloud, on-premises or hybrid. Partnering with enterprise modernization experts mLogica brings even deeper expertise to modernizing an enterprise’s data infrastructure.
“SAP’s dwindling commitment to Sybase ASE development and support is a wake-up call for its users,” says Avudai Gomathinayagam, Director, Global Lead GSI Partnerships, at Cockroach Labs. “This isn’t just about swapping out an old database; it’s a chance to reimagine how data serves the business. The constraints of an aging, on-premises system can give way to a cloud-native, highly scalable solution that propels future growth.”
Modernize Sybase now: The business case 
Continuing to rely on legacy databases introduces serious risks that go well beyond technical limitations. Many customers are still running very old, unsupported versions of Sybase. Though stable, they are critically lacking in current security updates and patches. As a result, compliance vulnerabilities increase dramatically, especially once EoMM takes effect.
“In highly-regulated sectors, this kind of exposure isn’t just a technical liability — it can result in significant fines,” warns Gomathinayagam. “Any application deemed mission-critical must be on a fully supported platform, or organizations could face severe consequences, particularly from regulators in the financial services industry.”
The financial equation worsens as Sybase expertise becomes increasingly scarce in the market. Like maintaining a vintage car with no parts in production, every Sybase fix gets more expensive. “Organizations face mounting costs for scarce, specialized personnel and extended support, often paying premium fees for diminishing returns,” says Peter Burney, mLogica Senior VP Strategic Programs. “This technical debt compounds over time, draining resources that could otherwise fuel innovation.”
“Perhaps most critically, Sybase applications often rely on decades-old libraries and architectures that create significant roadblocks to innovation,” Burney continues. “These legacy systems struggle to integrate with modern cloud services, creating friction that slows adoption of advancements across the board: real-time analytics, microservices architectures, global expansion opportunities, and much more.”
This technological stagnation doesn't just affect IT — it impacts the entire business's ability to respond to market changes. Yet despite these clear risks, many companies continue to delay modernization efforts.
"Fears of high upfront costs or downtime push Sybase-dependent enterprises to wait," Gomathinayagam observes. "But delaying too long is a bigger gamble — one major security breach or compliance issue can cost exponentially more. This wait-and-see approach increases both the risk and eventual migration complexity. Fortunately, proactive data modernization can enable a much easier and more affordable database migration.”
Why CockroachDB? A Cloud-Native Upgrade from Legacy Databases
CockroachDB offers a compelling way forward, as a distributed SQL database that combines the consistency of relational databases, the scalability and resilience of NoSQL, and the simplicity of cloud. It directly addresses the core limitations of Sybase, particularly around scalability, availability, and regulatory compliance.
Where Sybase depends on vertical scaling — requiring larger, more expensive servers to handle growth — CockroachDB takes a different approach: It scales horizontally by adding nodes to a cluster, which accommodates growing transaction loads or geographic expansions without massive hardware investments.
"It's a fundamental shift," says Gomathinayagam. "You don't have to redesign for each growth spurt — just add nodes, and CockroachDB rebalances automatically. This distributed architecture eliminates the painful capacity planning cycles that plague legacy systems.”
Availability represents another crucial advantage, especially for mission-critical applications. “CockroachDB's distributed design allows it to survive node or even entire region failures with minimal disruption, continuously replicating data across multiple locations,” Burney states. This resilience stands in stark contrast to Sybase's traditional single-site, failover-cluster approach.
The high availability of CockroachDB is essential for mission-critical workloads, as downtime can be catastrophic in finance, retail, or telecom. For global enterprises, this resilience translates directly to business continuity and customer trust, and identifying highly reliable platforms is more critical than ever: A recent study revealed that 53% of banking and financial services companies report experiencing service disruptions at least weekly.
Regulatory compliance challenges, particularly around data sovereignty, have become increasingly complex in recent years. CockroachDB addresses these concerns with geo-partitioning capabilities that allow organizations to pin specific data to designated regions while maintaining a single logical database. "Clients managing EU and US data, for example, can keep each dataset local yet query them seamlessly," Gomathinayagam explains. “This flexible approach solves data residency challenges that legacy systems like Sybase were never designed to handle.”
CockroachDB achieves these modern capabilities without abandoning SQL familiarity or locking customers into proprietary ecosystems. It uses standard SQL syntax and maintains PostgreSQL compatibility, enabling a far smoother transition from Sybase than NoSQL alternatives might offer. Organizations can deploy anywhere — on-premises, in any cloud, across multiple clouds, or hybrid — without vendor lock-in concerns.
"We see clients who want to modernize and adopt a multi-cloud strategy: CockroachDB aligns perfectly," says Gomathinayagam. “At its core, CockroachDB represents the distributed, cloud-native database that Sybase could never become, offering enterprises a clear path to greater resilience, global reach, and future-proof architecture.”
mLogica's Role: Enterprise-Scale Modernization Expertise
Technology alone, however powerful, doesn't guarantee successful migrations, especially at enterprise scale.
This is where Cockroach Labs robust partner network provides critical value, bringing deep domain knowledge and proven methodologies to large-scale transformations. mLogica’s structured approach begins with comprehensive assessment and roadmapping:
inventorying existing databases
identifying stored procedures
Identifying Sybase legacy libraries (CT-LIB, DB-LIB)
analyzing dependencies
developing an optimal migration path that prioritizes critical workloads, while phasing in others according to business priorities and risk profiles
mLogica's methodical migration frameworks cover everything from automated schema conversion to data migration strategies, with pilot programs validating performance and functionality before full deployment. Throughout the migration, they maintain business continuity to keep the new CockroachDB environment synchronized with the legacy Sybase system until final cutover – often limiting downtime to a single planned maintenance window even for mission-critical applications.
"mLogica's structured frameworks and global resources mean even complex migrations can be done securely while ensuring data integrity and minimizing downtime," says Burney. “By combining Cockroach Labs' deep product expertise with mLogica's enterprise-scale processes, organizations can significantly de-risk the transition and accelerate their time to value.”
Modernization in Action: A Brief Scenario
To illustrate this partnership in action, consider a global financial services firm running its trading platform on Sybase. The organization faces increasing performance bottlenecks and a potential EoMM deadline. Working with Cockroach Labs and mLogica, they launch a modernization initiative that follows a carefully orchestrated sequence:
The process begins with a comprehensive assessment, where mLogica thoroughly inventories data models, stored procedures, and compliance requirements. This deep discovery phase reveals not just technical details, but also business constraints and regulatory considerations specific to financial services.
Based on these insights, the team designs a multi-region CockroachDB architecture that spans multiple data centers to support low-latency global transactions. This architecture addresses both the immediate needs of the trading platform and anticipated future growth across new geographic markets.
A critical technical challenge involves refactoring key stored procedures from Sybase's proprietary T-SQL syntax to standard SQL that works efficiently with CockroachDB. The combined expertise of both partners proves invaluable in addressing these complex transformations while preserving business logic integrity.
The migration proceeds in phases, with lower-risk workloads moving first to validate the approach. Only after confirming reliability and performance does the core trading system migrate, reducing overall project risk. Throughout this process, mLogica's change management expertise helps prepare users and stakeholders for the transition.
The final cutover involves a carefully synchronized data synchronization to ensure no transactions are lost. The trading platform transitions to CockroachDB with minimal downtime, immediately benefiting from improved availability and horizontal scalability.
Post-migration, the financial firm can scale on demand, establish new regional presences without major architectural changes, and operate with confidence on a continuously supported platform. The firm is also able to reduce operational overhead significantly, and they're no longer paying for a legacy system with a dwindling talent pool.
Make the switch: Business and strategic benefits
“Modernizing from Sybase to CockroachDB delivers substantial advantages,” Gomathinayagam states. “Faster innovation and agility emerge as organizations switch to a modern data platform that unlocks microservices architectures and real-time data insights. Meanwhile, updates and enhancements that once required costly re-architecture can now be deployed rapidly, allowing IT teams to respond to business needs with unprecedented speed.”
“Cost and efficiency gains also materialize as organizations eliminate legacy maintenance fees and benefit from operational efficiencies,” he adds. “CockroachDB's automated features like self-healing and auto-scaling help enterprises to slash their administrative overhead, which frees up technical resources for more strategic initiatives.”
Security and compliance postures strengthen significantly with CockroachDB's continuous updates, advanced encryption capabilities, and sophisticated data partitioning for regulatory requirements. Organizations no longer face the anxiety of scrambling for EoMM patches or paying premium extended support fees when vulnerabilities emerge.
Perhaps most importantly, this modernization delivers a genuine competitive edge. “With a resilient, scalable infrastructure, businesses can enter new markets faster and adapt to changing customer demands with confidence,” says Gomathinayagam. “The transformation effectively shifts IT from being perceived as a bottleneck to becoming a true innovation enabler that drives business growth.”
“Ultimately, modernization is a strategic move,” he continues. “You're not just avoiding EoMM risk — you're positioning your business to compete and thrive moving forward."
Modernize and Migrate: Next Steps
If you're grappling with next steps after Sybase, now is the time to act. Cockroach Labs and mLogica stand ready to:
Assess Your Current Environment We'll evaluate your Sybase deployments and identify the optimal path for a phased migration.
Pilot & Prototype Test CockroachDB on a small workload or non-critical environment to validate feasibility and performance.
Plan & Execute Migration With mLogica's proven frameworks and Cockroach Labs' product expertise, you can minimize risk and downtime.
Optimize & Innovate Post-migration, leverage CockroachDB's powerful distributed features to accelerate new digital offerings and scale globally.
Be proactive
Sybase’s pace of modernization does not move at the speed of business, a bottleneck that represents a critical juncture. Instead of patching a legacy system, organizations are seizing this moment to invest in a future-proof data foundation. CockroachDB delivers the distributed, fault-tolerant, and globally scalable capabilities modern enterprises demand. With mLogica guiding the migration, you gain a trusted partner to navigate complexities and minimize disruption.
“The time is now for enterprises to flip the script on their aging Sybase estates – take this as an opportunity to propel your organization forward,” Gomathinayagam concludes. “Together with mLogica, Cockroach Labs will transform your Sybase environment into a modern data architecture that fuels innovation, lowers costs, and maintains relentless uptime.”
Ready to discover how Cockroach Labs can guide your data modernization journey? Visit here to talk to an expert.
Peter Burney is Senior Vice President, Strategic Programs, mLogica.
David Weiss is Senior Technical Content Marketer, Cockroach Labs.
