Application Tender Specs
If you were evaluating two different Commercial Application Systems, that both provided the same functionality to a business unit, and both used the Oracle Database as a backend, which would you choose? What questions would you ask each vendor to determine how they use Oracle?
Oracle Database Application Vendor Questionnaire
Vendor Name: _______________________________________
Applications: ________________________________________
General Contact: _____________________________________
Technical Contact: ____________________________________
Do you currently support the Oracle Database? If not,
- a. Why not?
- b. Do you plan to?
- c. If so, when, and will you have a beta program?
- d. Please skip the rest of this questionnaire.
2. Do you support Oracle 10gR2 (10.2.0)? If not, when do you plan to?
3. Please provide a certified configuration matrix. For each application and application version, what platforms and operating systems are supported? What Oracle versions are supported?
4. Do you use the Cost Based Optimizer or the Rule Based Optimizer?
5. For the following items, please describe how (and whether or not) each is used:
- a. Bind variables
- b. Triggers
- c. Database Links
- d. Synonyms
- e. Stored Procedures / Packages
- f. Constraints
- g. Application Tracing
6. What changes are we permitted to make to the physical database environment while still maintaining a supported status? Is there a general rule or guideline that we can use to determine what is out of bounds? Specifically, are we allowed to:
- a. Add, change, or remove indexes?
- b. Implement structural changes such as partitioning, compression, and index organized tables?
- c. Alter tablespace and datafile characteristics and the assignment of segments to tablespaces?
- d. Configure memory usage, and modify other initialization parameters?
- e. Load one-off patches and patch-sets
7. Any special arrangement w.r.t. backup and recovery?
- a) Is all data stored within the database?
- b) List all external dependencies (i.e. bfiles, external tables, etc.)
8. From a database perspective, are their any notable or unusual maintenance recommendations?
9. Describe the Information Lifecycle. How will old data be archived and removed from the database?
10. Can the database be secured to comply with the Sarbanes Oxley Act?
- a) Does the application require any DBA-type privileges?
- b) Does the application grant stuff to PUBLIC?
- c) Does the application require access to SYS and SYSTEM objects?
- d) Can user actions be restricted and audited?
11. What database options would be required (Partitioning, RAC, Spatial, etc.)?
12. What licensing options are available for each of your applications? How exactly is Oracle licensed?
