Oracle Licencing Machination FUD
We don’t want to cast stones at the other side – Oracle of course has a perfectly good Database system in direct competition with Microsoft’s SQL Server. We have avoided selling Oracle because we believe there is a certain amount of “negotiation” that can take place on big installation licencing, and we think licencing should be more transparent, along with the Campaign for Clear Licencing CCL www.clearlicensing.org.
But it was interesting to hear more about lack of confidence on www.cio.com where research has found that every time a client has an enquiry with Oracle Global License Management Services (LMS), it oftens leads to an audit rather than advice, and sales teams then kick in!
In a good way, Microsoft avoid this by only using Partners to resell their licences – and although they may be Certified Partners like us, they remain independant and not incentivised to threaten audits or ramp up fiddly add-ons for sales value. That’s why we stick with them – because apart from developing with their infrastructure and tools so knowing their products intimately, the sales of server licencing is tricky and not cheap enough as it is, without unneccesary complications and FUD. Yes, we hate all the Software Assurance “try to pay now for what you might not be able to make use of in future” scheme, which only encourages companies to stick with outdated versions, but it is a lesser evil 😉
What do you think?