Oracle comes in several flavors, ranging from free to swoon. Here’s a concise overview of each database Edition at http://www.oracle.com/database/product_editions.html.
Having been in the Oracle food chain for nearly 14 years, I remember changes to how Oracle charges for its products and how Oracle responded to competitive pressure. We have Microsoft SQL Server to thank for the ultra-low, entry-level price-point of Standard Edition One. (I’m not sure Oracle needs to account for pressure from Microsoft any longer, but that’s another topic.)
Few people realize that Oracle can be licensed on 16 cores of IBM Power 7 for less than $12,000. In the other corner, weighing in at a list price of $760,000 to license the same 16 cores (plus $176,200 in annual maintenance) is Enterprise Edition.
End-of-quarter, fire-sale discounting aside, what’s the catch? You forfeit 70 features and extra-cost options that are licensable only with Enterprise Edition.
Folks often compare Enterprise Edition to a high-end German car and, conversely, Standard Edition to an Accord. The metaphor breaks down, though, as I would argue that Standard Edition is still the high-end automobile, but you’re forced to close one eye and tie one hand behind your back while driving. You can accomplish the same tasks; it’s just a little harder, and most Oracle DBAs would rather settle for Standard than run another database (such as SQL Server).
Furthermore, most software companies do not exploit features beyond what Standard Edition supports.
The real issue at hand is compliance, as Oracle doesn’t necessarily disable Enterprise-only features when you install Standard Edition. This is in line with Oracle’s honor-system style licensing model, and extensive knowledge of policy is required to remain compliant.
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The Fundamentals of Saving Money on Oracle » Oracle Optimization
November 3, 2011 at 2:29 pm (UTC -6) Link to this comment
[...] Edition database has been deployed more than is necessary. I would go so far as to say that Standard Edition is good enough for anything outside of mission-critical tier-one applications. This is especially true when four [...]
Enterprise Edition versus Standard Edition » Oracle Optimization
February 20, 2012 at 4:43 pm (UTC -6) Link to this comment
[...] superior functionality that many applications and administrators shan’t live without. I wrote about this nearly two years ago when UNIX manufacturers started dropping prices and core counts increased [...]