Item: Oracle Database
Rating: 3
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Oracle Database is our organization's primary database server. Our main line of business application uses it exclusively to store data making it mandatory across the organization. It provides a stable and scalable relational database platform but a high custom with extremely inflexible and frustrating licensing terms.

Pros and Cons

Stable database platform.
Sellable enterprise database platform.
Known and trusted vendor.

Cost: platform is expensive
Virtualization support: Licensing model makes virtualization costly.
Difficult to work with: Oracle is one of the most difficult vendors to work with.

Return on Investment

Negative ROI - It's extremely expensive to purchase
High cost of ownership due to platforms complexity and high cost of Oracle DBAs.
While it's expensive it does get the job done, it's stable and scaleable.

Alternatives Considered

Microsoft SQL Server

Microsoft SQL is just as stable and almost as sellable with a much lower cost of ownership (staff and licensing). But as our primary application doesn't support Microsoft SQL we had to license Oracle.

Key Insights

Do you think Oracle Database delivers good value for the price?

Are you happy with Oracle Database's feature set?

Did Oracle Database live up to sales and marketing promises?

Did implementation of Oracle Database go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Oracle Database again?

Other Software Used

Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL

Likelihood to Recommend

Oracle provides a scalable and stable enterprise relational database platform. Oracle understands stability, assuming you provide capable and stable hardware Oracle will stay running. But it's too complex to manage and Oracle's licensing terms make virtualization either complex or expensive. Unless your application requires it, find another database platform.

Products Replaced

Key Differentiators

Product Usability

We had no choice since it's the only platform our primary application supports.

Evaluation Lessons Learned

The process was fine even through we aren't happy with the result we didn't have a choice.

Oracle Database Customer Support Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Quick Resolution Good followup Knowledgeable team Problems get solved Kept well informed Support cares about my success Quick Initial Response	Escalation required Need to explain problems multiple times

Premium Support

We use Oracle to support production workloads so we purchase support.

Stable but Expensive and Tough to Use Enterprise Database Platform

Overall Satisfaction with Oracle Database