Re: Oracle vs. MS SQL

Dennis,

Thank you for this summary.

Igor Neyman, OCP DBA
ineyman_at_perceptron.com

• Original Message ----- To: "Multiple recipients of list ORACLE-L" <ORACLE-L_at_fatcity.com> Sent: Friday, April 05, 2002 12:13 PM

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

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