Subject:  Re: ADBC
 
Alfredo wrote:
For some people, money is no object.  But for those stick-in-the-mud kinds
of people for whom money matters, it might be interesting to find out HOW
MUCH the whole setup costs.  Hardware is only one aspect of things.  Don't
forget software.  I'm still waiting for Oracle's and Sybase's answer to my
question along these "obviously stupid" money-oriented details, posted more
than two years ago in New York.  I simply addressed the Oracle and Sybase
representatives at the roundtable and asked: "How much do I have to pay for
a 100-concurrent-user license for Oracle or Sybase?"
 
<snip>
 
 Notre Dame just purchased a 100 user Oracle RDBMS for Solaris.  Got the RFP
right here.
 
 After looking over the pricing, the reason you don't get "a single answer"
to this question is because each piece of the Oracle Software is priced
either by named users, by concurrent devices, by entire computer systems or
by developer.  Cost is a matrix of purchased features.
 
This thing reads like a new car option list.  The more options selected the
bigger the price.  If I were to quote our 100 user license cost - it might
well be out of bounds with another mix/match 100 user license.
 
But Oracle does have an integrated user Kerberos authentication module.  We
can plop this thing out on the public campus network and not worry about
sniffed passwords in clear text and hacking in (user only needs to
authenticate once.)  Access controls can be managed in a DCE cell.
 
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Eric J. Schubert                    Senior Data Base Analyst
Office of Information Technologies  Univ of Notre Dame, IN USA
(219) 631-7306                      http://www.nd.edu/~eschuber