RE: Oracle Licensing

As luck would have it I was evaluating the prices of Oracle and then SQL Server today.

My question at this point is, what kind of prices does Microsoft charge for support, I was pretending to purchase SQL Server and noticed that no mention is made about product support.

Using the "Power Unit" method MS and Oracle come out within about $5k of each other, but when you get to their Enterprise editions, MS is just under $20k where as Oracle is way out there. The cheaoest I could get Oracle, with unlimited users (which is what I need). On a 1ghz Intel, single processor machine with a 2 yr lic, Oracle Enterprise costs $45,600 (thats if you want support with your DB).

If it were my money $20k vs. $45k+, hummm.

I'm no Friend-of-Bill, but one has to wonder how Oracle can compete with such a huge price difference. Is MS doing to Oracle what it did to Netscape and dozens of other companies?

Tom

>Martin Kendall - Martin.Kendall_at_Rubus.com on 3/5/2001 4:45 PM writes us:

>I'm following this thread and a worrying thought has crossed my mind:-
>
>If Oracle carries on with this pricing model, soon we will all be looking
>for a new job......scary :-)
>
>Martin Kendall
>
>-----Original Message-----
>Sent: 02 March 2001 22:00
>To: Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L
>
>
>Last time I danced with our sales rep, power units were per server, not per
>user... so the power unit price would be 400*100 = 40,000 for an unlimited
>(Ha!
>at 200mhz?) number of users. If you ask nicely, yours may agree to convert
>any
>concurrent or named user licenses you have into power unit credits.
>
>Dennis Taylor wrote:
>
>> At 06:25 AM 3/2/01 -0800, you wrote:
>> >the mire. At any rate, there are suppose to be two basic licensing
>> schemes, and
>> >GOD only knows how many "allowed" permutations:
>> >
>> > 1) Power Units which equates to the number of processors times the
>> speed of
>> >the processors in Megahertz. Oh, BTW: it matters if their Intel or Risc
>> >processors too. Risc processors are more expensive. In general this is
>the
>> >MOST expensive way to go.
>> >
>>
>> I went to the oracle site and did some calcs for adding users to Oracle
>> Enterprise. Kept sayin g to myself, "Naw, they must mean *hundreds* of
>> megahertz....". Anyway, for a very behind-the-curve system (2x200mhz
>> ppro's), it works out to $4000 per additional user.
>>
>> Or I can look at Interbase/Firebird, which is free.
>>
>> Today I will be assigning one of my staff the task of downloading,
>> installing, and evaluating Firebird.
>>
>> The only way I can imagine that Oracle thinking can be going is: "Hey,
>> revenues are dropping because of competition from free and less expensive
>> dbms's". "No problem. Raise prices to make up the shortfall". Then I say
>to
>> myself, "Naw, no-one can be that stupid". Then I check the per-user prices
>> again....
>>
>> Dennis Taylor
>> --------------------------------
>> Good we must love, and must hate ill,
>> For ill is ill, and good good still.
>>
>> --
>> Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com
>> --
>> Author: Dennis Taylor
>> INET: ismgr_at_pctc.com
>>
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>--
>Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com
>--
>Author: Martin Kendall
> INET: Martin.Kendall_at_Rubus.com
>
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-- 
Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com
-- 
Author: Tom Schruefer
  INET: tschruefer_at_mail.howard.k12.md.us

Fat City Network Services    -- (858) 538-5051  FAX: (858) 538-5051
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