Re: Why does Oracle cost so much?

"Hans Forbrich" <forbrich_at_yahoo.net> wrote in message news:tkbpc.8713$j6.5699_at_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

Hans,
Very well said. Bravo. I've run into all these. I would also add the "White Knight Phenomena". This is the phenomena where there is some tricky business problem and some outsider comes along and brings the marketing dog and pony show and claims that if you just use their stuff all your problems and more would be solved. They will save you. Of course, they don't but by the time you have invested a lot of money and time (mainly time) you cannot do anything else and have to live with the new problems you have and try the myriad of ways to work around them.
Jim Received on Fri May 14 2004 - 20:12:27 CDT