The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (30 December 2018):

Adaptive Server Enterprise
Sybase SQL Server

    (ASE) The relational database management system that
   started life in the mid-eighties [first release?] as "Sybase SQL
   Server".  For a number of years Microsoft was a Sybase
   distributor, reselling the Sybase product for OS/2 and (later)
   Windows NT under the name "Microsoft SQL Server".

   Around 1994, Microsoft basically bought a copy of the source
   code of Sybase SQL Server and then went its own way.  As
   competitors, Sybase and Microsoft have been developing their
   products independently ever since.  Microsoft has mostly
   emphasised ease-of-use and "Window-ising" the product, while
   Sybase has focused on maximising performance and reliability,
   and running on high-end hardware.

   When releasing version 11.5 in 1997, Sybase renamed its
   product to "ASE" to better distinguish its database from
   Microsoft's.  Both ASE and MS SQL Server call their query
   language "Transact-SQL" and they are very similar.

   Sybase SQL Server was the first true client-server RDBMS
   which was also capable of handling real-world workloads.  In
   contrast, other DBMSs have long been monolithic programs; for
   example, Oracle only "bolted on" client-server functionality
   in the mid-nineties.  Also, Sybase SQL Server was the first
   commercially successful RDBMS supporting stored procedures
   and triggers, and a cost-based query optimizer.

   As with many other technology-driven competitors of Microsoft,
   Sybase has lost market share to MS's superior marketing,
   though many consider it has the superior system.

   (http://sypron.nl/whatis_ase.html).

   (2003-07-02)