Conference ulysse::rdb_vms_competition

265.0. "Internal (non)use of Oracle" by VISION::FERRARA (DTN:273-5505 DIS DSTAR GROUP) Sat Dec 10 1988 00:54

      The following information may be useful if you confront a situation in
which Oracle sales representatives have stated that Oracle is used extensively
within Digital. 

    In a nutshell, PRODUCTION use of Oracle appears to be confined to exactly
ONE NODE on our 30,000+ node Easynet network. In this one production situation,
Oracle is used as the embedded database within third-party process monitoring
system installed on a VAX-11/785 at one of our manufacturing facilities. The
product is also installed on an estimated 7 or 8 other Easynet nodes, where it
is used for testing and interoperability analysis by our Data Base Systems and
Field Service groups. Complete details are given below, but at best, total
internal market share penetration of Oracle appears to be about .00026, or .03%
as of this writing.

    The major agreement which we have in force with Oracle Corp is Digital
Distributed Software Agreement orginally negotiated through Ultrix Marketing.
This agreement allows our saleman to sell and receive credit for Oracle
sales on Ultrix systems. A subset of this agreement allows for internal use
situations. A total of 15 purchase orders worldwide have been executed against
this agreement, Corporate Purchasing agreement number A88-110118-00. 

    Exact, dates, amounts and terms of all these purchase orders can be supplied
upon request. Here is a quick summary of what I have learned in investigated 
these PO's.

    + Only 5 purchase orders were for true internal use - that is, for machines 
      operating on Digital property and/or on the Easynet. The remaining 10
      PO's were for two external customers who purchased both VAX hardware and
      Oracle software from Digital on a single PO and quote price. 

    + Of the 5 internal purchase orders. all were for analysis or testing,
      not production work. 3 of the 5 licenses are for machines within DEC's
      Database Systems Group. 1 license is within DEC's CIM marketing 
      organization, where Oracle was being used in a since-discontinued 3rd
      party product. The last "internal" license covers two IBM PS/2's which 
      are used by Field Service to test capabilites of servicing Oracle-PS/2 
      combinations via their Avanced Service Delivery System.

     In addition to the 15 PO's executed under the agreement with Oracle, I also
located a 16th purchase order which mentioned Oracle. This PO was covered under
another purchasing agreement with an automated test equipment vendor. This was
the one situation where it was used on a "production" Easynet node within one
of our manufacturing facilities. 

   This is not to say whether or not Oracle is a good product, but as Paul 
Harvey says...when it comes to usage of Oracle within DEC, now you know the 
REST OF THE STORY.

    That was excellent information!
    
    Will there be more studies and reports done on internal penetration
    of all 3rd party database products currently in use within Digital?
    
    
    
    
    John

I've been asked to look into the possibility of licensing Oracle on our
local Easynet node.   We're an EIS unit whose largest client is NYNEX and 
we are seeing incresing demand for Oracle consulting and development.

Does the agreement only include Oracle on ULTRIX or can I get a VMS license?

Who should I contact regarding internal licensing of Oracle?

-dave

    Dave,
    
    We don't have any kind of agreement with ORACLE for licenses on VMS.
    We have three licenses in the company that I'm aware of.  One is in 
    DBS engineering (used for the development of RdbAccess for ORACLE).
    One is in the DBS performance group (used for benchmarking).  And 
    the third is in DBS CSSE (used for the support of RdbAccess for 
    ORACLE).  
    
    If you want an ORACLE license, you'll have to get a PO for it.  It's
    not cheap!
    
    Anne