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Re: Why does Oracle cost so much?

From: Hans Forbrich <forbrich_at_yahoo.net>
Date: Fri, 14 May 2004 22:00:57 GMT
Message-ID: <tkbpc.8713$j6.5699@edtnps84>


Markus Hölzle wrote:

> Hello,
> im just wondering why Oracle is so expensive and who uses it. Could
> someone tell me, who are the usuall buyers of Oracle and why is it so
> special compared to other dbs?
> Thx

I suspect you are looking at the PRICE and not the COST.

I've found that organizations which develop towards the Oracle model (as described in Thomas Kyte's book Expert One on One Oracle) actually find that Oracle is NOT all that expensive.

BUT they actually use the stuff that Oracle provides - instead of: trying to develop towards a vendor neutral model; OR using a "I don't have time to learn how, so I'll guess" model; OR buying or reinventing Workflow, Data versioning, Text searching, message queueing, etc.

Organizations that want nothing more than what a "multi-user Microsoft Access" or MySQL can provide sometimes find Oracle is apparently expensive. This in part because they do not look at long term maintenance, administration or even development costs. They frequently simply don't track these items because they tend to fall into the 'operating budget' rather than 'capital budget' or get lost in the same way time around a water cooler gets lost (not invaluable, just not identified and therefore ignored).

Also, organizations in which the prototype developer or development group is considered King of IT because they are very proficient at visually exciting prototype or demo programming (rather than robust corporate programming) may find Oracle expensive. My experience is such organizations prefer putting lipstick on a pig and are always looking for a cheaper pig.

The usual buyers are either organizations that know how to evaluate and [due apologies] leverage tools, calculate & track 'return on investment'. Also organizations that blindly follow a third party suggestion. Finally organizations that have respected professional (database, system, security, network, and so on) administrators.

The usual organizations or individuals who ask this question tend to fall in onel of the following categories: trolls; small companies at the mercy of a third party; developers who are too (chose one - lazy, overworked, underskilled, recently trained in a competitor's database); purchasing department people who have been recently visited by a Microsoft or an Open Source pundit; and people who have been told to take their wonderful MS Access 'system' which was build under $1,000 (or 1.000 Euro) and roll it out to the company.

Of course, the above is simply my interpretation, based on roughly 30 years of observing the IT industry from inside & out. I could be wrong. <g>

/Hans Received on Fri May 14 2004 - 17:00:57 CDT

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