By Nick Patience
Oracle Corp is trying to steal Sun Microsystems Inc’s perceived ‘dot com’ thunder by announcing another package aimed at internet start-ups. It is bundling its 8i relational database with its application server, JServer, JDeveloper and WebDB web site development tool in a package starting at $10,000. It’s calling the bundle the Oracle .com suite and will aim it at start-ups that it says too often opt for cheaper software, planning to upgrade to the higher end of the food chain later on. This way, Oracle hopes, it will lock them in for life.
The bundle comprises three development licenses each for the two development tools, JDeveloper and WebDB, plus a deployment license for either 25 named users or 500 so-called power units. Oracle’s self-defined power units are calculated by multiplying the number of processors by the megahertz of each one. So a box with two 233Mhz processors would comprise 466 power units, similarly a single-processor 500MHz box would meet the mark.
The deployment license covers 8i, the JServer Java run time environment and the application server. Dom Lindars, a director of Oracle’s internet platform marketing group says the named user licensing model would be better for those start-ups with a lot of developers working on the web site, whereas the power unit model is more appropriate for companies that already have their web site up and early development mostly done. That’s because it’s almost impossible to price such things based on the number of web users.
Lindars says it’s a significant saving over the products unbundled, but would not say how much specifically, bar indicating that 8I pricing usually starts at around $295 per user. The pricing is the same if the boxes are hosted or not. Oracle recently announced iHost, a combination of 8i and the application server aimed at ISVs wishing to become application service providers. Lindars says that service and its price is not yet available. The Oracle.com suite offer will be available from September through February 2000.
