Re: tough choices

From: Mark Townsend <markbtownsend_at_comcast.net>
Date: Tue, 22 Jun 2004 03:43:49 GMT
Message-ID: <VVNBc.157111$Ly.81952@attbi_s01>

datab0y_at_yahoo.com wrote:

>
> For example, in the system that Daniel Morgan mentioned would cost
> around $80k/ CPU with oracle. That would include
> enterprise edition $40k
> + partitioning $10k
> + RAC $20k
> + advanced security $10k
> -------
> $80k / CPU
>
> I mentioned before that DB2 workgroup server would do that job at
> about $7.5k/CPU, or about 10% of the oracle cost.

<snip>

A couple of things should be pointed out with this comparison

You are comparing IBM's workgroup server unlimited edition ( IBM DB2 WUSE, limited to 4 CPUs and 32 bits, targeted at small web serving environments) with Oracle's Enterprise Edition. A better apples-to-apples comparison would be IBM's workgroup server unlimited edition pricing, with Oracle's Standard Edition One (limited to 2 CPUs) or Standard Edition (limited to 4 CPUs, inlcuding RAC support for up to 4 CPUs in a cluster).

Comparative based prices are then

Oracle 	 SE1 4995 per CPU
IBM DB2	WUSE 7500 per CPU

Oracle SE 15000 per CPU (includes RAC)

2) IBM has no equivalent to Oracle's Partitioning or RAC option, so I'm not sure why you would even try to include them in a comparison. They also require an additional Tivoli product to provide the same capability that Advanced Security option provides.

>
> However, keep in mind that this is a huge drop in price for oracle.
> Imagine if it still used its power-unit licensing cost - and you were
> going to use four 3 ghz CPUs. That would cost about $300k / CPU - or
> about $1.2m for to fully license the quad. Based upon this - oracle
> has dropped its price around 75% in four years!

Where did you get this price from ? It sounds completely made up - AFAIK, Oracle never published power unit pricing for 3 GHz machines.

> Now, I'm not sure how DB2 UDB was licensed in 2000 - but I think it
> was actually less than it is now. So, at the same time oracle has
> dropped its price 75% db2 has raised its price 10% I believe (please
> correct me on the older db2 prices).

I'm not sure that IBM has indeed raised prices. This quote is taken directly from the IBM website "DB2 WSE and DB2 WSUE have undergone significant licensing changes when compared to DB2 V7. If you licensed DB2 WSE V7 with the Internet Processor license, you must migrate to DB2 WSUE V8. The cost of DB2 WSUE V8 has been reduced by 47% when compared to DB2 V7 prices."

In addition, it seems that IBM nows bundles 1 year of support with their high end licence (DB2 ESE) - at least, those purchased via Passport Advantage. This may account for what you are seeing as raised prices, but in reality it's just a means of revenue recognition (certain marketshare analysis, for instance, only count "new" licence revenue towards their marketshare numbers - so bundling support with upfront licences can help improve that number. Products that require a re-up as you move from one version to another also benefit from this business practice)

> So back to my original question - any one have tips on using
> competitive pricing to drive oracle down to more competitive pricing?

Get your figures straight 2) Negotiate

Received on Mon Jun 21 2004 - 22:43:49 CDT