Oracle Licensing

Oracle database software can be very expensive or very cheap (even free), depending on what you buy/use:

* Oracle Enterprise Edition is very expensive - and it should be: It is the most powerful database management system on the planet! [Note: The neutrality of this statement is disputed!]

* Oracle Standard Edition costs about the same as Microsoft SQL Server. It can only be licensed on servers, or server clusters, that have a maximum capacity of 4 processor sockets.

* Oracle Standard Editon One is less expensive than SQL Server. It may only be licensed on servers that have a maximum capacity of 2 processor sockets.

* Oracle PE is very inexpensive, full-featured version of Oracle DB, but is restricted to one user per database (server, not instance, most likely). The license however allows a developer to use all of the features of the EE (with the exception of the Options and Management Packs).

* Oracle XE is provided free of charge.

* Oracle Enterprise Manager (OEM) Database Control and Grid control is provided free of charge, however, the management packs needs to be licensed for the number of users or CPU's that you "monitor" with it.

* Oracle Application Server (iAS) Standard Edition One may only be licensed on servers that have a maximum capacity of 2 processor cores.

A great comparison document showing what is included and what isn't for all of the editions of the Database is available at Oracle.com. See page 10 for the beginning of the comparison table.

More information on oracle licensing at:
http://www.orafaq.com/wiki/Oracle_Licensing

Posted in: Oracle Tips