"Oracle8i 'Three-To-Five Times' More Expensive Than DB2" - Computergram International, 10/16/00

Database users should use Oracle Corp's "expensive" database pricing to haggle for lower licensing or move to alternative platforms, according to analyst Meta Group. Meta claims Oracle's recently introduced power unit pricing model for the 8i makes it three to five times more expensive for an organization to purchase this database than IBM Corp's DB2, which uses a per-processor pricing model and was introduced in May last year.

In a contentious report entitled DB2 Hits the Price/Performance Sweet Spot, which came to light last week, Meta Group told potential Oracle customers they should "use the pricing disparity as leverage to reduce new Oracle license costs."

Meta Group said: "Where Oracle remains intransigent on pricing, users should consider DB2 as an alternative." It said users should "leverage price points" from all three major database vendors, and that Microsoft's SQL Server is emerging as a low- cost database option.

Redwood Shores, California-based Oracle hit back at the report on Friday. While vague about whether Oracle8i is more expensive to purchase than DB2, senior director of internet platform Bob Shimp said: "I wouldn't agree with those figures precisely." He claimed 8i offers a low-cost alternative to DB2 in the long run because of its management features.

Oracle 8i offers a series of online or automated features that either cut the amount of programming required by database administrators, or which mean the database does not need to be taken offline, reducing down time. Features include online failover, bitmap indexing, row-level locking, and partition technology. "We sell the most advanced technology and total cost of ownership," Shimp said.

The database market is a hard-fought area. Oracle is fresh from the recent OpenWorld 2000 developer jamboree where it unveiled features in the next version of its 9i database that are designed to increase performance in clustering and scalability. Oracle and IBM currently both hold approximately 30% of the database market, according to analyst Dataquest. Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft remains a poor third and is expected to remain so for several years despite the launch of SQL Server 2000.