You can have Larry’s slower machine but you have to be willing to beg Oracle for more discount on the software to make up for the added cost.
Some simple back-of-the-napkin math speaks for itself, unless I am missing something. The new T5-8 machine achieved a peak SPECint rate of 29.3 per core across 128 total cores according to Oracle’s benchmark page. According to SPEC.org, Dell’s PowerEdge M820 (available last August) achieved 38.4 per core among 32 cores.
Part 1 was merely a primer on the potential financial pitfalls of Oracle’s CoD offering. Today’s post outlines the accompanying technical issues.
To begin, it is important to revisit that Exadata is an expensive and over-engineered solution because most databases not only don’t need RAC, but also may run more efficiently without it. If you don’t need RAC, then you may not need Enterprise Edition, but dimes-on-the-dollar solutions such as Standard Edition are not available with Exadata. Furthermore,
The most important take-away regarding Oracle’s new CoD offering is that Oracle still sells software separately. All the traditional licensing and technical support policies apply, which means that CoD is another delivery mechanism for perpetual software support fees. Its a brilliant step forward in securing more high margin cash flow. And just when you thought Oracle had it mastered.
Let’s dissect the pricing example outlined in Oracle’s IaaS data sheet:
Another way to look at this is that list pricing applied to support renewals is double or more that of the original license order.
If you find yourself paying support on Oracle software that is no longer deployed, then this post is for you. (The remaining three people may want to continue reading regardless since shelfware is a common affliction that may or may not want to be avoided.) Its not only common, but also causes resentment among IT executives keen on cutting costs. As I did here regarding VMware, its worth mentioning Oracle’s reasoning.
When you license software Oracle extends a discount commensurate with volume. Years later, when you seek to eliminate shelfware from the associated renewal,
It’s like asking a divorce attorney for premarital counseling.
With this ULA I Oracle wed
This article is interesting but requires clarification regarding Oracle. Specifically, Oracle’s maintenance stream is, in fact, forever. Enterprise agreements–specifically unlimited license agreements (aka ULAs)–roll all prior, disparate maintenance streams into to one big, all-or-nothing, growing, hairy, annual payment to Oracle. You only get out from underneath this agreement by sweeping the floor of all the Oracle products on the renewal. Therein lies the reason I discourage ULAs.