The Oracle Database Appliance (ODA) provides more value at significantly less cost than custom Oracle implementations on white box hardware for both integrators and their customers, writes Wikibon Co-Founder and Chief Technical Officer David Floyer in his latest Wikibon report. Returning to a favorite theme, how Single Managed Entities (SMEs) – complete stacks that include hardware, database, middleware, and ideally applications to increase efficiency and provide huge savings – Floyer analyzes the multiple ways in which an ODA is more efficient and less expensive in purchase, licensing and management than more traditional custom-built Oracle stacks.

Among the benefits detailed in the report are:

• Oracle licensing costs are reduced because Oracle only charges for the virtual cores allocated to running the database on the ODA, versus its normal practice of charging for all virtual cores in the server.
• Implementation is faster because all the components are standard, pre-tested and pre-integrated.
• Support staff is reduced for both the independent software vendor (ISV) and the user because the standard stack is a known entity with proven reliability and few if any unique problems.
• Users have a single “throat to choke” in the event of a problem.
• Purchasing and financial management are simpler.

As a result of these and other savings, Floyer estimates that a typical installed price for an ODA including the ISV application running on it is approximately $700,000, compared to $1.2 million for a traditional custom system running the same Oracle database and application. Additionally the ODA is faster and less expensive to install, test and implement, which creates faster time-to-value.

As part of the research for this report, Wikibon interviewed three prominent Oracle resellers – Re-Quest Inc., Temenos Group AG, and Mformation, a subsidiary of Clearlake Capital Group. All three have adopted the ODA as the preferred solution for most customer needs. Re-Quest reports that customers were initially wary of Oracle owning both the software and hardware, but after seeing the advantages they now request the ODA approach.

The complete report, with a detailed discussion of the sources of the savings and other advantages of the ODA, is available without charge on the Wikibon Web site. IT professionals are invited to register for free membership in the Wikibon community. This allows them to influence the direction of Wikibon research and participate in that research, comment on published research, and publish their own questions, tips, Professional Alerts and longer written research.

Photo of Oracle headquarters courtesy Oracle Corp.

Graphic courtesy Wikibon.org