It seems that everywhere I turn these days I am either reading or hearing about how the new SQL2012 licensing changes are the worst thing since Windows Vista, and possibly since Microsoft Bob.
Well I am here to tell you that things could always be worse. How so? Check out this blog post regarding Oracle and their costs:
So, your three takeaways from that article are this:
- Oracle
- Oppressive
- Costs
The more I get to see of Oracle’s licensing and how they nickle and dime you for everything reminds me of how airlines operate, or even Hootsuite.
I’m happy with how Microsoft is doing their licensing, but that’s also because I don’t run a data center and have to buy licenses, or Software Assurance, or, well…anything. But I am also aware that in about ten years none of this will matter because it will be all-Azure, all the time.
Get used to the changes people, there’s still more of them to come.
And be thankful you aren’t writing multiple checks to Larry Ellison every few weeks.
The licensing changes are still a bad move, one of the key factors in getting SQL into businesses and keeping it there is the lower costs. When it comes round to designing and proposing a solution big numbers scare decisions makers off.
Perhaps there will be more MySQL on the horizon…
Dale,
Even with the changes, MS is still a lower cost option, I believe. And soon enough it will all be Azure anyway.
Tom, RE: Azure – I’m not so certain that most shops will settle for a turnkey, let alone external, database solution. A Mom and Pop Shop, yeah. A medium size public company, I dunno.
If you want your business covertly mined, easily subpoenaed, latent over a WAN, at additional risk for compromise, in a cookie-cutter design / functionality, and all Microsoft all the time, then I guess it’s for you. (And one other thing: It is possible that Microsoft may not exist in 10 years. Or it could be as relevant as AOL. Heck, the USA may not exist in 10 years).
But with Azure you can assume you have backup, DR, and SLA met, though, or issue a chargeback to Microsoft.
Dale,
Even with the pricing changes for Enterprise goes core based not socket based SQL Server will still be cheaper than Oracle. Oracle Enterprise is $47,000 per core (based on the current Oracle price book) while SQL Enterprise is $6873.75 per core.
MySQL is great until you need support from them or a maintenance agreement. FaceBook uses MySQL buy pays a ton annually for support from MySQL.
Denny,
The Oracle Enterprise license of $47,000 is per processor with annual support at $10,000, so with 8 cores that comparison is less drastic.
Still very expensive but their website lets you browse the store for prices and options.