Re: oracle EE pricing

  • From: Thomas Roach <troach@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: Richard.Goulet@xxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Mon, 18 Jan 2010 09:41:59 -0500

I've seen several projects where the IT team/proj manager/IT manager wanted
to go with Oracle for new projects but the finance team shot the deal down
because of the price difference between say Oracle and SQL Server or DB2,
now that SQL Server and DB2 have added many of the features that used to
make Oracle standout. There are still many things Oracle does really really
well, but when finance gets involved, they make it really hard to justify,
so you get "You can buy SQL or DB2 or you delay the project" and some
managers are just not willing to do that.

Where I am at now, they have us looking at Postgres because as they look to
quadruple in size in the next 2 years, the Oracle costs will kill them, but
our sales rep says there is nothing he can do to help us bring the cost
down. I love PostrGres but it doesn't exactly match their RAC systems, and
it's not instrumented the way Oracle is, plus the patching/support. Oracle
knows they have ya and are probably willing to lose a few customers to gain
the extra revenue from the rest.

I do have one big complaint, that Oracle wants to charge for Diag and Tuning
packs to look at AWR data, but all the options. Also, you buy EE, but then
you need to pay extra for RAC, Partitioning, Active Data Guard, Advanced
Security Option, Advanced Compression, Real Application Testing etc... not
to mention all the Grid Control packs. I wish Enterprise Edition included
all these things, but realize it is a way to maximize revenue. It's almost
as bad as Microsoft is with licensing Windows (how many different versions
of Windows do they have?)... seems like both companies want to milk the cash
cow.

On Mon, Jan 18, 2010 at 8:24 AM, Goulet, Richard <Richard.Goulet@xxxxxxxxxxx
> wrote:

>        Many years ago I interviewed with a major financial.  They
> operated in a similar way, though not exactly identical. In their minds
> a computer was obsolete after 5 years, whether a desktop, laptop, or
> server.  They also believed in never opening their machines after
> purchase, so all computers came porked, max memory, cpu's, fiber cards,
> etc.....  Disk systems were the same, buy EMC and fill it as we'll use
> it sooner or later.  They followed the same idea with Oracle.  If the
> machine was going to be a database server, buy a license for it, with
> all options and then just leave it.  No patches or support after the
> first year.  When the server came to the end of it's life they replaced
> it along with the Oracle license if still needed.  They claimed it was
> cheaper in the long run, but I wonder.  I'm no financial wizard, by any
> stretch of the imagination, so it doesn't make sense to me.
>
>        What I don't understand, soapbox please, is why Oracle places
> the cost of it's software as high as it does, after all it's software,
> not platinum.  There is no limit to the number of copies that you can
> sell and at it's current price there is sufficient sticker shock that
> sometimes the nod goes else where.  I know that a project I'm involved
> with is reconsidering their DB choice just because Oracle is so darn
> expensive.  The PM wanted EE with  a 2 node Rac and Active Data Guard.
> Will probably end up as SE, no RAC and a basic DR setup (recovery from
> tape).  The other side of this is that I've friends who have lost their
> jobs, not because they were downsized, but replaced with DB2 or
> Sql*Server DBA's and that just on the impression that those would be
> cheaper.  That is down right depressing.  OK, we can put the soapbox
> away now.
>
>
> Dick Goulet
> Senior Oracle DBA/NA Team Lead
> PAREXEL International
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>  [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of William Muriithi
> Sent: Sunday, January 17, 2010 10:20 AM
> To: pythianbrinsmead@xxxxxxxxx; WLJohnson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Cc: vlajos@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx; Oracle-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: RE: oracle EE pricing
>
>
>
> I have clients who have operated for years without a support agreement
> (and without patching).  But I would not voluntarily choose this myself,
> though.
>
> I am curious, would this still be acceptable to Oracle?  I have always
> assumed that you are only allowed to play with it, for testing and
> learning. The moment you attach a business around it, you have to part
> with money, even if you do not need patching and support.
>
> Please do not infer that I am putting you in a tight corner. I have
> thought twice before sending this, but concluded you would be okay since
> you are the one who brought it up in the first place.
>
>
>
>
>
> Bill
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From:
> oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxx
> rg>] On Behalf Of Veres Lajos
> Sent: Saturday, January 16, 2010 5:41 AM
> To: Oracle-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:Oracle-L@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: oracle EE pricing
>
> Hi,
>
> I dont understand something about pricing.
> This page says:
> https://shop.oracle.com/pls/ostore/f?p=ostore:product:86489432026629::NO
> :RP,3:P3_LPI,P3_PROD_HIER_ID:4509382199341805719938,45099582877218057200
> 11
>
> Perpetual license/cpu: 47,500$, plus yearly support: 10,450$
> 1 year license/cpu: 9,500$
>
> It looks like to me it is cheaper to re-buy a yearly license in every
> year, than the yearly support cost of a perpetual license. (And there is
> lot more difference in the first year...)
>
> I guess I am missing something, but I cant find it.
>
> Can you enlighten me?
>
> Thanks in advance.
> --
> Veres Lajos
> vlajos@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:vlajos@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> +36 20 438 5909
> --
> //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l
>
>
> --
> //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l
>
>
>
>
>
> --
> Cheers,
> -- Mark Brinsmead
>  Senior DBA,
>  The Pythian Group
>  http://www.pythian.com/blogs
> --
> //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l
>
>
> --
> //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l
>
>
>


-- 
Thomas Roach
813-404-6066
troach@xxxxxxxxx

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