Re: licensing $$ comparison to SQLServer?

Glen A Stromquist wrote:

> Has anyone on the NG done a licensing cost comparison to SqlServer in the
> recent past?
>
> We are just bringing on an enterprise wide app and our user base is going
> way up, and converting our grandfathered concurrent users license to
> accomodate the added users for a new named user license will push our cost
> up 385%. Needless to say my boss is less than impressed and I have been
> instructed to look at alternatives, as the app in question will run on
> either DB.
>
> I looked at the MS SQLserver site and can't find where their cost per CAL
> seat is. They give a price for their EE with 25 CALS, but thats all I can
> find at the moment.
>
> TIA
The licensing cost is only one piece of a very complex calculation. Why not ask for the Total Cost Of Ownership?

1. Cost to rewrite application front-end
2. Cost to rewrite application back-end
3. Cost to retrain personnel
4. Cost of downtime due to instability of app, RDBMS, and/or operating system
5. Cost of downtime duet to security violation
6. Cost of hardware to achieve performance benchmark

I, and my customers, gladly pay more for Oracle licenses. Because we save larger dollars on everything else.

When I was consulting at Boeing a few years back we tested the latest version of SQL Server and proved that with as few as three concurrent users we could bring it to its knees in a hard crash requiring a reboot. The same was impossible in Oracle with 100X as many users. Needless to say SQL Server, while used at Boeing, is not allowed for line-of-business (mission critical) applications ... only Oracle, DB2, and Teradata. There are a lot of things that are more important than the cost of a software and support license. I would suggest that you consider them too.

Daniel Morgan Received on Thu Sep 26 2002 - 17:29:01 CDT