IBM Corp delivered DB2 Universal Database Version 6.1 on Friday, inevitably pitching it at the fast-growing electronic business market. DB2 UDB 6.1, which IBM launched back in May (CI No 3,662) adds new application development, business intelligence, Java and XML features to the product, which runs on AIX, HP-UX, Solaris and SCO UnixWare Unixes, Windows NT and OS/2.
The new version also features a simplified per processor pricing with unlimited web access, making it up to a third cheaper than its competitors, according to IBM. A single user personal edition is $369, and unlimited web user editions are $3,000 (Workgroup) $12,500 (Enterprise) and $20,000 (Extended Enterprise) per processor.
Oracle Corp, after much thought, has added similar pricing models to Oracle 8i. Dom Lindars, director of Oracle’s internet product marketing group, said the new pricing extensions, added at the end of Oracle’s fourth quarter in May, follow a more sophisticated model than IBM’s. So-called power unit pricing takes into account the number of CPUs and the power of the processor (mainframe, RISC or Intel). He claimed the move had met with a good response from customers, and that Oracle goal is to head towards standardized pricing.
Oracle says it doesn’t disclose pricing details, but the Personal edition or Oracle 8i has a starting price of $295 for a single user. Meanwhile, Microsoft Corp, still struggling with client- user access questions with SQLServer, hasn’t yet offered any form of unlimited web access models to its product pricing lists.
