Oracle to revise pricing for 9i

MUMBAI: Following the worldwide launch of its 9i database software, Oracle is
now expecting a good response for the product in the corporate and SME segment
by revising its pricing range for large scale deployment.

"India has a large customer base who are using Oracle 8i and hence they
will be the first to seek an upgrade," said Oracle India CEO Shekar
Dasgupta. The company claims that the new software is in sync with the new way
of computing, moving away from high cost models to lower cost, high scalability
and performance options.

"We have particularly revised pricing for our core technology product
database, applications server and tools license fees. Having moved from
power-based to processor-based pricing, the revision is between 35-65 per cent
lower, depending on the type of processor and its clock rate," says Shekar.

Though Oracle products are generally licensed for perpetual use, term
licenses will also be made available. Shekar also dismissed reports that the
high price of 8i was acting as a deterrent in the market. "On the contrary,
Oracle has increased its market share in India and worldwide in the past two
years, when all new licenses were made on Oracle 8i," he added.

Oracle's 9i database has got about 400 new features as compared to its
predecessor, Oracle 8i. It uses cache fusion technology for real-applications
clustering. The product's closest competitors in the small market segment are
Microsoft with its NT-based SQL Server and IBM that offers database capabilities
on certain platforms.

Oracle has also outlined plans to launch a new service, "Oracle Files
Online", that can be used by businesses to store their corporate data,
later this year. While this service will be free for some levels of disk storage
space, the company has not altogether shelved ideas of charging for larger
levels of storage.