Oracle vs. MS SQL

I recently prepared a total cost comparison between Oracle and MS SQL. I appreciate the support several people on this list provided me. In return, here are some of the main points I learned.

• For smaller systems, investigate whether Oracle Standard Edition will meet your requirements. For example, most people assume that to use replication, you need EE. For our purposes the basic replication that comes with SE was adequate.
• Microsoft also offers SQL in both EE and SE versions. Thanks very much to Gints Plivna for providing me a feature-by-feature comparison between the different versions. MS SE is not equivalent to Oracle SE. In most cases, the more valid comparison is between MS SQL EE and Oracle SE.
• For maintenance, there are two parts to consider: Upgrade privilege and support. Oracle bundles both of these together. Make sure Microsoft is priced with Software Assurance, which gives upgrade privilege. Microsoft prices support by the incident or by the location (all Microsoft software). I was never able to get a comparison.
• MS SQL EE with Software Assurance is actually more expensive than Oracle SE. Priced by the CPU.
• Since pricing is by CPU and RISC systems offer higher database performance (according to many people on this list) and Oracle offers higher performance in a head-to-head comparison (according to the recently published Eweek benchmark), I compared Oracle SE on a 1-CPU Sun box with MS SQL on a 2-CPU Intel box. The Intel box was cheaper, but those two CPUs really kill you on licensing! In my mind I am convinced that both setups could offer equivalent performance.
• I was provided figures that the average DBA salary (including health, vacation, etc.) on Oracle is $85,000 and on MS SQL $68,500. A leading industry analyst stated that the main reason MS SQL sites have less reliability is because there are few processes to ensure high availability, high performance. Developing these processes in the MS SQL world is more trial-and-error while these are well-documented in the Oracle world. I would add that several authors that participate in this list have created that documentation.

Dennis Williams
DBA
Lifetouch, Inc.
dwilliams_at_lifetouch.com

-- 
Please see the official ORACLE-L FAQ: http://www.orafaq.com
-- 
Author: DENNIS WILLIAMS
  INET: DWILLIAMS_at_LIFETOUCH.COM

Fat City Network Services    -- (858) 538-5051  FAX: (858) 538-5051
San Diego, California        -- Public Internet access / Mailing Lists
--------------------------------------------------------------------
To REMOVE yourself from this mailing list, send an E-Mail message
to: ListGuru_at_fatcity.com (note EXACT spelling of 'ListGuru') and in
the message BODY, include a line containing: UNSUB ORACLE-L
(or the name of mailing list you want to be removed from).  You may
also send the HELP command for other information (like subscribing).