Re: Oracle vs SQL Server

arguing price is really on a case by case basis. Both Microsoft and Oracle follow the same tact to pricing their enterprise software. Quote a price that is ridiculously high. Find out how much money you can get your customer to pay, then give them a 'discount' to make them think they got a deal.

I know someone who runs a startup who got SQL Server Enterprise edition for $1500 for everything.

I know someone at a startup that has been around about 6-7 years and they got Oracle with RAC on a 4 CPU box for $8,000 for the whole server.

I also saw a post once by someone who was paying $32,000/CPU said they got a 20% "discount"

You can't argue price. It's what you can negotiate. The big mistake people seem to make is they start using Oracle or SQL Server, use the features and then negotiate price. By that time they have you.

Here is a blog entry that explains in part what they are doing

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/CamelsandRubberDuckies.html

This is just an excerpt. If you want to read the article pay attention to the part about 'consumer surplus'.

Bad Idea #2: How Much Money Do You Have? Pricing. This is the kind used by software startups founded by ex-Oracle salesmen where the price isn't on the website anywhere. No matter how much you search to find the price, all you get is a form to provide your name, address, phone number, and fax number, for some reason, not that they're ever going to fax you anything.

• Original message -------------- From: "Dennis Williams" <oracledba.williams_at_gmail.com>

Sandy,

I would argue that Oracle is actually cheaper than SQL Server, and the article Sinardy has linked proves this. Both Oracle and Microsoft offer products labeled "standard" and "enterprise". This is misleading. The features don't even line up. If your organization has a true requirement for Oracle Enterprise, then they won't be considerning SQL Server, even the "Enterprise" edition. And if they are considering SQL Server "Standard" edition, then they are wasting their time considering Oracle at all.

    This means that the relevant consideration is between SQL Server Enterprise Edition and Oracle Standard Edition. And it turns out that Oracle Standard list price is cheaper than SQL Server Enterprise Edition.

Dennis Williams  

On 10/2/06, Sinardy Xing <oracle.rdbms_at_gmail.com> wrote: http://www.mssqlcity.com/Articles/Compare/sql_server_vs_oracle.htm
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http://www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l Received on Mon Oct 02 2006 - 08:51:04 CDT