[DUG] FYI Oracle make free entry level 4Gb user database available

[peter at webcentre.co.nz]

Stefan wrote:

> But personally, the biggest selling point of XE for me is
> "scalability" .. the warm fuzzy feeling that if one of my new website
> projects ever gets that popular I can just change to an enterprise RAC
> cluster of oracle databases to serve hundred thousands of users without
> having to change a single line of code.

That is indeed a very compelling argument for some applications,
depending on how true it is. That is:

* if we were to adopt Oracle XE for application A, how much harder
would it be to get it written, tested, initially deployed and tuned
compared to doing the same with Firebird?

* are there any fishhooks in XE's limitations other than the obvious
4GB disk, 1GB memory ones?

* how much ongoing maintenance time/attention would be invested in
the deployed DB compared to Firebird (approximately nil)?

* how long would XE cope with growing application/user load compared
to Oracle XE?

* and when we found the application was wildly successful, beyond the
point that we could have imagined Firebird supporting it, how much
time would be involved in making switch to the Enterprise RAC cluster
-- just repoint the DB handle?

* and what sort of licensing $$ are we talking about for the latter?
<g>

These are the questions I'd be considering when assessing whether
Oracle XE would be a database-of-choice for the next "must scale
well" application. Would love to hear if there are reasonable
approximations for any of them <g>.


cheers,
peter

===========================================
Peter Hyde, Development Director
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