kgund...@teamcool.net said:
> . . .
> A - DR - At this point Oracle is very focused on places where they can make
> revenue and margin. Unfortunately for us, we have not seen a good uptake on
> those standalone subscriptions. Has seen more emails on the topic than the
> total number of systems sold. Hard to make a case. At this point, there are
> no plans to support non-Sun systems. We will continue to honor existing
> contracts for the term of that contract. Over time, we hope to move folks
> over to Sun hardware.
. . . .
As are others, I've also been trying to find answers. Our organization
is in the education/research area, and while we do keep a few critical
infrastructure systems on the traditional Sun Spectrum hardware+software
service contracts, the bulk of the machines, mostly Sun x64 servers,
rely on their hardware warranties and on the ('til now) free availability
of security patches.
We do have pricing requests in to our Oracle representative for access to
patches on these formerly free systems. I see that Oracle Linux has a
"Network Support" level in their price list, at around $119/year. This
is similar in price to RedHat Enterprise Linux "updates-only" support level.
The Education price for RH EL Server update subscriptions is $60/year per
server, and I told our Oracle rep that this is the price that Solaris needs
to compete with in order to get our business. We get Windows Server licenses
for an $80 one-time cost (Education, remember), with free updates for the
life of the OS, so that's the other competition that Oracle Solaris has
in our little market.
We've been buying Sun x64 servers for the past four years primarily due
to the incredible Education promotional pricing that Sun used to have.
This brought Sun hardware to at or below Dell's Education pricing on
similar equipment, Dell being our other main source of affordable
and reliable systems.
So, unless there becomes available an entry-level Solaris subscription,
I expect that our little group will go from 30+ Solaris systems down to
maybe 5 or 6 of those critical infrastructure systems. When the numbers
get that small, it's hard to justify sticking with Solaris. And that's
difficult for me to contemplate, I've been enjoying Solaris on x86 since
sometime in 1994.
Good luck everyone,
Marion
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