| For VAX RDBMS Buyers, It Pays To Shop Around
By Michael T. Booth
The VAX relational database market is the most highly competitive
software market today. That being the case, one would assume that the
competing products are relatively close in terms of price. Instead, there
is approximately an 8:1 spread between the least expensive and most
expensive relational DBMSs of the four major VAX-compatible relational
database vendors (Digital, Ingres, Oracle, Sybase). Current prices for
an RDBMS on a VAX 6240 range from $58,000 to $200,000.
In distributed environments, the price spread can jump to more than
20:1. In such environments, there are more RDBMS licenses involved.
Although many of these licenses exist as execute-only entities, the RDBMS
vendor may not have "run-time" software available at the large
discounts usually inherent in run-time software.
Admittedly, the buying decision usually involves many criteria, of
which price may be a small consideration at the time of purchase.
However, when taken over a period of five years, software cost can have
major implications on the data processing expenditures of any business.
At a minimal level, a relational database requires some form of
programming interface in order for any productive work to be
accomplished. Most customers expect that interface to be SQL (Structured
Query Language), the standard interface for relational databases.
At the least, the interface must provide interactive SQL for creating,
modifying, and querying databases (Static SQL). Some vendors charge
extra for interactive SQL.
Embedded SQL is generally handled via a precompiler. Again, some
vendors charge for EACH programming languaCCge precompiler. Because many
businesses use multiple programming languages, the precompiler cost
may not be trivial. For instance, on a VAX 6240, the cost range for
precompilers varies from $0 to $18,750 each.
Each vendor has its own 4GL (fouth-generation language). But pricing
for 4GLs varies as widely as pricing for the RDBMS. Current 4GLs range from
$21,000-$107,000, as priced for the VAX 6240.
Most vendors have performance features built in to the RDBMS. Some,
however, still offer performance features as an extra-cost option.
In the communications area, here again, the customer may assume that
network communication is packaged with the RDBMS. It is true that the
hardware vendors tend to include proprietary network protocols.
However, other vendors must support multiple network protocols. Each
must be bought separately. Using the VAX 6240 as a basis of comparison
again, the price range for network access and capability can range from
a cost of no charge to $18,750.
Many businesses are now exploring and beginning to implement
distributed DP systems. The cost of doing so with the help of an RDBMS
will vary greatly from vendor to vendor. To do distributed processing,
many vendors require a product typically called vendor-name "NET". These
products range from $0 to $25,000 per machine.
Another facet of distributed processing is the run-time license. A
run-time software license is very helpful for distributed applications. It
works like this: The customer buys a development license for a given
machine. The applications are developed and tested at one site, then
installed on the remote machines on which applications will be run.
Because these downline machines need no development capability, they
can use run-time software licenses at greatly reduced prices. But some
database vendors do not offer true run-time licenses and instead give
minor discounts to additional licenses.
In addition, the standard maintenance and support fee doesn't exist.
The fees range from around 4% of list price to 15% of list price.
On a five year Cost of Ownership comparison, the software maintenance
cost on some of these RDBMS "solutions" can exceed the hardware
maintenance cost of the system on which it runs. At that price level,
the customer could buy additional hardware more inexpensively than
paying the software maintenance.
Most Digital customers have both IBM mainframes and PCs. Most of those
customers also want these non-Digital devices to be integrated in some
form with the Digital database.
Implementation schemes and charges vary excessively in this area. Most
vendors offer "connect" software to IBM databases. But often that
software only works from one component of the database tool set rather
than the entire database tool set.
Also, the software for the IBM machine may entail special charges for
operating system support, CICS support, and/or protocol software that
supports LU6.2 or LU2.0 or whatever protocol that vendor uses in his
implementation. In addition, the "NET" software may be required as
well. The cost can vary between $35,000-$150,000.
Then there is the more obvious problem of granting access to the IBM
data from multiple VAX nodes. This may require an installation of the
entire RDBMS package on each system that gets access.
With PCs, the connectivity issues are different. Most DBMS vendors
require that for PCs to talk to their VAX RDBMS, the PCs each must have
the same software as the VAX. That can mean as much as $6,500 per
PC in software and hardware upgrades needed to handle the PC version of
the product. The entire implementation can cost anywhere from $0-$2,500
per PC in software cost alone. Hardware upgrades can add another
$0-$4,000 to the figure.
It has been common practice for customers to demand
of the prospective hardware vendor an itemized five year cost of
ownership on a proposed system configuration. It is time to demand the
same of the prospective DBMS software vendor.
The price table below is designed to help determine the SIMPLE five
year cost of ownership on RDBMS software. Please remember that this is
a SIMPLE model. That is, it assumes that no additional software is
purchased, and that no unbundling occurs during the five year period.
It is, nonetheless, a good starting point at which to begin comparing
cost factors.
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| Here is the original.
Buyer Beware in the VAX RDBMS Market
By Michael T. Booth
The VAX relational database market is the most highly competitive
software market today. That being the case, one would assume that the
competing products are relatively close in terms of price.
Nothing could be further from the truth. There is about an 8:1 spread
between the least and most expensive relational database of the 4 major
VAX database vendors (Digital, Ingres, Oracle, Sybase).
In distributed environments, the price spread can jump to more than
20:1. In such environments, there are more RDBMS licenses involved.
While many of these licenses exist as execute-only entities, the RDBMS
vendor may not have "run-time" software available at the large
discounts usually inherent in run-time software. Nonetheless, the price
spread is virtually unbelievable in such a competitive market.
Automobiles also represent a highly competitive market. But customers
never see comparably equipped models with 20:1 price differences.
Admittedly, the buying decision usually involves many criteria, of
which price may be a small consideration at the time of purchase.
However, when taken over a period of five years, software cost can have
major implications on the DP expenditures of any business.
Now let's look at some of the areas where the cost difference may come
as a surprise.
RDBMS
Yes, the relational database software itself has an enormous range of
prices. Current prices for an RDBMS on a VAX 6240 6240 range from
$58,000 to $200,000. Yet in this market, more money doesn't necessarily
buy more product. The money may be buying the perception of greater
value rather than real benefit.
Application Development
At a minimal level, a relational database requires some form of
programming interface in order for any productive work to be
accomplished. Most customers expect that interface to be Structured
Query Language (SQL), the standard interface for relational databases.
At the least, the interface must provide interactive SQL for creating,
modifying, and querying databases. Hopefully, the SQL can be embedded
in application programs as well.
It may come as a surprise for potential buyers that some vendors make
interactive SQL a database prerequisite, and charge extra for the SQL
product.
Embedded SQL is generally handled via a precompiler. Again, some
vendors charge for EACH programming language precompiler. Since many
businesses use multiple programming languages, the precompiler cost
may not be trivial. For instance, on a VAX 6240, the cost range for
precompilers varies from $0 to $18,750 each.
Each vendor has its own 4GL. In addition some third party products work
on multiple RDBMS platforms. But pricing for 4GLs varies as widely as
pricing for the RDBMS. Some vendors price the RDBMS high with the 4GL
low. Some price the RDBMS low and the 4GL high. The price that counts
is the total of all the pieces. Today's 4GLs range from
$21,000-$107,000 (again, VAX 6240 prices).
Performance
Most vendors have performance features built in to the RDBMS. Some,
however, still offer performance features as an extra-cost option. One
vendor heavily emphasizes the advantages of row-level locking. Then
they charge for a separate product to provide such capability. Such
packaging schemes create confusion and disgruntled customers. Buyers
must be alert to ask the vendor which features are built in vs. which
features are "layered on". The buyer should also consider carefully
which of these performance features are really required vs. which sound
technologically advanced but are unnecessary for a given situation.
Communication
Here again, the customer may assume that network communication is
packaged with the RDBMS. It is true that the hardware vendors include
network capabilities with their database products. The other vendors
however, must support multiple network protocols. Each must be bought
separately, and the price range is large. Using the VAX 6240 again, the
price range for network access and capability can cost from $0 to $18,750.
Distributed Access
Many businesses are now exploring and beginning to implement
distributed DP systems. The cost of doing so with the help of an RDBMS
will vary greatly from vendor to vendor. To do distributed processing,
many vendors require a product typically called vendor-name "NET". These
products range from $0 to $25,000 per machine.
Another facet of distributed processing is the run-time license. A
run-time software license is very helpful for distributed applications. It
works like this---the customer buys a development license for a given
machine. The applications are developed and tested here, then installed
on other machines where the applications will be run. Since these
downline machines need no development capability, they can use run-time
software licenses at greatly reduced prices (typically 50%-85%
discounts). It sounds good. But again, some database vendors do not
even offer true run-time licenses, but instead give minor discounts to
additional licenses (generally less than 30% discounts.).
Software Maintenance and Technical Support
Right now someone is reading this, thinking "why discuss this? Surely
this is the same for all vendors." Sadly, such is not the case. The
standard maintenance and support fee doesn't exist. The fees range from
around 4% of list price to 15% of list price. Just as the price varies,
so too does the quality of support each vendor offers its customers.
The quality variance is not necessarily related to the price variance.
In addition, the history of bundling/unbundling varies from vendor to
vendor. Such a record can be critical. A customer paying maintenance on
the bundled version of the software may not appreciate it when the
product set gets unbundled in the next release, and that customer is
told that his software maintenance payments do not cover all the
components of the newly unbundled product. For instance, if a new
performance release comes out, but the customers already paying
maintenance are required to buy that new release, maintenance becomes
rather meaningless.
It is also at the maintenance level that the run-time licenses really
help. The discounts reduce the list price and thus the "bite" of the
maintenance charges.
Even here, however, one must be careful. All vendors offer some kind of
discounts on additional licenses beyond the the first. But the buyer
must be careful, because sometimes the software maintenance is charged
at a percentage of INITIAL LICENSE MLP. That means that the price discount
helps with additional licenses, but maintenance and support per license
is still charged at a percentage of the non-discounted list price. Such
a practice means that a price discount on the software will not
ameliorate the maintenance charge increases.
On a five year Cost of Ownership comparison, the software maintenance
cost on some of these RDBMS "solutions" can exceed the hardware
maintenance cost of the system on which it runs (I discovered this when
comparing vendor costs on a large system [ VAX 6240, 10 disks, and an
HSC-70]). At that price level, the customer could buy additional
hardware more inexpensively than paying the software maintenance.
As might be expected, technical phone support also varies. Hours vary,
and there are even some who charge for "Extended" or "Premium" support
at rates upwards of 20% of the Manufacturer's List Price of the
purchased software per year. Such extra charges greatly increase the
ongoing cost of ownership of the RDBMS.
Connectivity
Most Digital customers have both IBM mainframes and PCs. Most of those
customers also want these non-Digital devices to be integrated in some
form with the Digital database.
Implementation schemes and charges vary excessively in this area. Most
vendors offer "connect" software to IBM databases. But often that
software only works from one component of the database tool set rather
than the entire database tool set.
Also, the software for the IBM machine may entail special charges for
operating system support, CICS support, and/or protocol software that
supports LU6.2 or LU2.0 or whatever protocol that vendor uses in his
implementation. In addition, the "NET" software may be required as
well. The cost can vary between $35,000-$150,000. Remember too, that
the maintenance charges increase as the cost of the purchase increases.
Then there is the more obvious problem of granting access to the IBM
data from multiple VAX nodes. This may require an installation of the
entire RDBMS package on each system that gets access. That type of
implementation scheme can greatly increase the price of the
software that must be purchased.
With PCs, the connectivity issues are different. Most DBMS vendors
require that for PCs to talk to their VAX RDBMS, the PCs each must have
the same RDBMS software as the VAX. That can mean as much as $6,500 per
PC in software and hardware upgrades needed to handle the PC version of
the product. Some implementations require a special compiler on each
PC. Some need the omnipresent "NET" product again. The entire
implementation can cost anywhere from $0-$2,500 per PC in software cost
alone. Hardware upgrades can add another $0-$4,000 to the figure.
Neither will the majority of PC users relish the idea of giving up
their current tools just for the privilege of accessing data on minis
and/or mainframes.
Thus, connecting the PCs can be cheap and painless or prohibitively
expensive and excruciating.
Conclusion
The VAX database market is highly competitive. But up to now it has not
been price conscious. That lack of consideration has cost many
customers hundreds of thousands of dollars. If the proper questions are
asked during the evaluation cycle, you may decide that one special
feature is really not worth doubling the price of the software.
Marginal feature cost can be surprising. The one feature that a customer
likes in a given RDBMS product may, though unknown to the customer,
cause him to buy a product that may cost 20 times more than competitive
products over five years. That makes the marginal feature cost
extremely high.
For several years, it has been common practice for customers to demand
of the prospective hardware vendor an itemized five year cost of
ownership on a proposed system configuration. It is time to demand the
same of the prospective DBMS software vendor.
The price table below is designed to help determine the SIMPLE five
year cost of ownership on RDBMS software. Please remember that this is
a SIMPLE model. That is, it assumes that no additional software is
purchased, and that no unbundling occurs during the five year period.
It is, nonetheless, a good starting point at which to begin comparing
cost factors.
Cost
Feature Vendor A Vendor B Vendor C Vendor D
------- -------- -------- -------- --------
SQL Support:
Interactive
Embedded
Communication/Connectivity:
PCs
Mainframe
Network Access
Performance Features:
On-line backup
Row-level Locking
Special Backup (faster)
Miscellaneous:
4GL/Productivity Tools
Run-time license
Software Maintenance/
Technical Support
----------------------------------------------------------------
+ Cost of RDBMS
----------------------------------------------------------------
= Total Initial Software Price
----------------------------------------------------------------
+ Maintenance/Technical Support x 4
----------------------------------------------------------------
= Total 5-year Cost of Ownership
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