New Oracle Database Aims To Fill SMB Niche

Called Oracle Standard Edition One, the SMB version is based on the current Oracle9i code and is priced at $5,995. It is limited to use on one-processor servers, according to Oracle, Redwood Shores, Calif.

Alternatively, Oracle Standard Edition One can be sold for $195 per named user with a minimum of five users. Support and maintenance add 22 percent of the license cost, and Oracle's eBusiness discounts apply, an Oracle spokeswoman said. So support and updates for Oracle Standard Edition One would cost $1,319 for the one-CPU license and $214 for five named users.

The new offering brings Oracle's total number of database editions to three. The Enterprise Edition costs $40,000 per processor for a perpetual license or $800 per named user. The Standard Edition is $15,000 per CPU or $300 per named user.

In contrast, Microsoft is now offering Small Business Server 2003 with SQL Server for $1,499, or about $4,500 less than Oracle Standard Edition One.

"In the small- and midsize-business space, a $6,000 Oracle database server would not interest me vs. [Microsoft's] SQL Server, especially with what Microsoft is doing with Small Business Server," said Ben Holtz, president of Green Beacon, a Watertown, Mass.-based solution provider.

Oracle's SMB database is in the same price range as IBM's DB2 Express, which sells for $499 per server plus $99 per named user, not including support. Microsoft SQL Server 2000, a huge force in the midmarket, costs $4,781 per CPU for the standard edition, or $667 per server plus $146 per device.

Oracle has said it plans to ship its next major release, Oracle 10g, by year-end, and customers with up-to-date licenses and maintenance typically get the next major revision at no extra charge.

Oracle pricing has been under scrutiny of late. While the vendor is strong in enterprise accounts, it has struggled to price aggressively for departmental or small-business use. At OracleWorld last month, Oracle Chairman and CEO Larry Ellison said published price changes were imminent, but they never came. Industry observers say they still expect Oracle to offer more aggressive prices on its Real Application Clusters, which now cost $10,000 per CPU over and above the database price.