You heard about it from me first, here, and then again here, and now it's official:

Award Recognizes Sybase’s Commitment to the Success of its Partners

DUBLIN, CALIF. - Sybase, Inc., an SAP company (NYSE: SAP) and an industry leader in enterprise and mobile software, today announced that it has received the 2010 Software Excellence Supplier Award from Cisco. This prestigious award recognizes those software suppliers who engage with Cisco to ensure a high level of customer satisfaction.

The distinction was awarded during Cisco’s 19th annual Supplier Appreciation Event, held September 29, 2010, at the Santa Clara Convention Center. The event celebrated the commitment of Cisco’s preferred suppliers to ongoing customer satisfaction and accelerated growth as demonstrated by their operational excellence.

“Sybase understands that high-quality, leading-edge technology is critical to information management, and they deliver even greater value by embracing the new business models Cisco must embrace to meet customer needs" said Prentis Wilson, vice president, Global Supplier Management, Cisco. "Ultimately, Sybase partners with us proactively to anticipate and deliver for our customers"

Cisco presented awards to suppliers in recognition of their contributions to Cisco’s success in fiscal year 2010. Cisco also reaffirmed the importance of supplier relationships as the company pursues its corporate vision to build the human network and transform the way people live, work, plan and learn.

"The Cisco Software Excellence award is a recognition of our strategy to go beyond just delivering product innovation" said Brian Vink, vice president of Data Management Products, Sybase. "At Sybase we put a lot of focus on the intangibles of an ISV partnership such as collaborating on roadmap, providing unmatched support, and being flexible in all aspects of the relationship"

More than 10 million users have benefited from applications that have been deployed by ISVs who rely on the Sybase® SQL Anywhere® embedded database server to power their business critical systems. SQL Anywhere’s ease-of-use, out-of-the-box performance, and self-management innovations address the evolving requirements of solution providers across many vertical markets. To learn more, visit www.sybase.com/sqlanywhere.

Interestingly, the press release doesn't mention SQL Anywhere by name until the last paragraph, and then doesn't connect SQL Anywhere with Cisco.

That's OK, I'm here to fix that...

Here's what the original announcement said:

Cisco currently embeds SQL Anywhere in nearly 20 products, and cited Sybase iAnywhere's efforts to ensure Cisco's success with the technology. During the presentation, Cisco praised Sybase iAnywhere's unique approach, and the technical and relationship support provided by the Sybase team.