FYI, the Oracle Marketing spiel...
Price Does Not Equal Cost
Databases store, protect, manage and provide access to a company's most important
business asset * information. There is no other product that a company will buy that
has a greater effect on information systems. Selecting the wrong database product can
compromise business growth and profitability. It would make sense to select a database
product based on price alone if database products were the predominant part of the
overall information technology expenditures. But this is simply not the case. Software
costs (including upgrades and technical support) typically represent less than 15% of
an IT budget and are small compared to the overall costs of hardware, operations and
maintenance, consulting and training.
IBM DB2's Hidden Costs
IBM never talks about the hidden costs of running an application on DB2:
DB2 needs a more expensive hardware infrastructure to deliver the same level of
service as Oracle. Oracle database is faster and more efficient than IBM DB2 on the
same hardware configuration. Oracle database supports more users and handles a
greater workload with a smaller and less expensive hardware configuration. The real
proof is IBM using Oracle database, not DB2, to benchmark its Unix hardware platforms.
Oracle offers a more complete solution for high availability than IBM. DB2 lacks high
availability features and makes IBM rely on hardware to deliver high availability. As
a result, DB2 requires a more expensive hardware configuration to deliver the same
level of availability as Oracle. According to an IBM-sponsored study by the Standish
Group, even modest increases in availability can amount to millions of dollars saved
each year. You can depend on Oracle to keep your business running and keep your IT
budget under control.
Oracle has far superior security features compared to DB2. Oracle has 13 security
certifications from independent and internationally recognized organizations, IBM has
none. Delivering a 100% secure solution with DB2 means additional software and
consulting costs. IT Managers should be aware that security breaches amount to
billions of dollars in losses every year for businesses around the world.
DB2 lacks the advanced and automated system resource management capabilities than
Oracle can deliver. Using DB2 means higher on-going maintenance costs.
Choosing DB2 as a strategic database provider locks IT organizations into IBM's world:
DB2's lack of third-party applications means more expensive development costs or
inability to handle critical business processes. More than 17,000 applications from
independent software vendors run on Oracle providing a pool of solutions unequaled by
IBM.
DB2 has limited functionality and is not optimized on non-IBM platforms such as HP or
Sun which are IBM' s fierce competitors in the hardware market. As a result, DB2 locks
you into IBM hardware at higher cost and risk of low performance.
DB2 is not DB2 is not DB2. DB2's code base is different on Unix and NT than on AS/400
and the mainframe. This platform incompatibility leads to higher costs. While IBM
claims 90% compatibility, the last 10% can mean a lot of wasted time for developers.
Most applications are prototyped on NT first, then extended to the platform they will
be deployed on. With IBM, developers know they will have to rewrite part of their
code.
There are more trained DBAs for Oracle than for DB2, making it easier to deploy and
manage application running on Oracle database. Oracle has nurtured a 1.4 million
strong developer community which is now is a deep pool of talent that IBM cannot
offer. Gartner summarizes it all in a review of DB2: "While IBM's per-processor
pricing model makes DB2 especially attractive to the midrange and high-end markets,
users should carefully weigh their anticipated total cost of ownership factoring in
the difficulty of finding experienced DB2 developers and administrators".
IBM's solutions are far less integrated than Oracle's and require additional time and
resources before they can go live. Let's take security as an example. Oracle Advanced
Security and Oracle database are fully integrated. These two products are developed by
the same teams. To get access to security that are functionally comparable to Oracle,
IBM's customers need to acquire IBM Secureway, which comes from a totally different
product line.
Quality Equals Economy
Because a database is such a key technology, quality matters more than just software
price. Who wants to run a general ledger application on an infrastructure that cannot
handle peak loads? Who wants to run a global e-commerce or customer support
application on a system that must go offline every week for maintenance? Who wants to
run an HR system on a database that compromises on data integrity?
An application running on Oracle costs less to operate than an application running on
DB2 simply because Oracle delivers a higher quality of service than DB2. IBM touts its
lower database price, but why risk your business on DB2, a product with many hidden
costs?
Technology Innovation Is Key
By far, the largest hidden cost of running DB2 is IBM's low rate of innovation.
Innovation is key to a robust but flexible IT infrastructure. Information systems must
evolve constantly as end-user demand changes. They need to evolve rapidly to respond
to business changes such as company acquisitions or unexpected competitive pressure.
An IT infrastructure based on software products that lack innovation becomes legacy
very rapidly. And legacy is expensive to maintain or replace.
Oracle has been the database technology innovator for 20 years. In 1979, Oracle
delivered the first commercial relational database. In 2001, Oracle delivers the first
database caching technology that improves web performance and allows IT organizations
to reduce hardware costs. Oracle has not stopped innovating over the past 20 years.
Buying DB2 means buying into an infrastructure that is less advanced than your
competitors' and that quickly will become legacy in no time. In the long run, buying
DB2 equals additional and unnecessary costs as systems need to be upgraded or replaced
to reap of the business benefits of more innovative technology.
Customers Are The Real Proof
Customer acceptance is the real proof, and customers are choosing Oracle:
Oracle has been growing its software business at an average rate of 20% per year while
IBM's software business has been flat or declining for nearly six years in a row.
Customers vote with their pocketbooks and, clearly, they are voting for Oracle, not
IBM.
Oracle has a higher customer retention rate than IBM (AMR Research, November 2000)
11% of IBM DB2 customers plan on switching to a different database over the next 2
years. (AMR Research, November 2000)
Oracle is the most commonly used database across all industries, with usage rates that
are, on average, 3 to 4 times higher than IBM DB2 (AMR Research, November 2000)
Oracle database is the most commonly used database for developers: a recent EvansData
survey shows that 55% of developers use Oracle, only 25% use IBM DB2.
The Oracle leadership fact page is on www.oracle.com
Oracle Worldwide Marketing
>>> [EMAIL PROTECTED] 04/24/01 11:57AM >>>
Disclaimer: I am *not* trying to start a religious war, and I am *not*
trying to advocate DB2. I am simply offended. Thus this post.
As some may remember, I'm doing an evaluation of Oracle vs DB2 vs SQLServer
to determine our future direction. Here's a datum that makes a significant
difference to us, dollar-wise.
With Oracle, in order to make a database accessible to the internet through
a web page, you have to buy an unlimited-user enterprise license. We had a
senior sales person in our office yesterday, and we asked this question a
number of different ways. He bobbed and he weaved, but he did not deny it.
And the quote he supplied afterwards does not address the issue at all.
Cost of unlimited-user Enterprise version for our installation (your
mileage may vary) = Approx $160,000 Cdn.
IBM, for the same purpose, will sell you DB2 UDB Workgroup edition (1
user), and something called WE Internet Access, for a total price of $6000
Cdn. I have a written quote from an IBM salescritter to this effect.
$6000. $160,000. $6000. $160,000. Hm. Let me think.....
I respectfully submit that Oracle's pricing structure is out of line with
market realities, and may have to undergo significant revision.
Dennis Taylor
--------------------------------
Don't be fooled by old cliches - He who laughs last may have
just figured out the joke.
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