Oracle defends its pricing model

Oracle has admitted its controversial software pricing model is no more than a "best attempt at this time".

Last week, Computing revealed that users can pay over $1 million more for Oracle software on a Sun Microsystems server than on a comparable IBM server.

Speaking exclusively to Computing, Oracle's executive vice president of server technologies, Chuck Rozwat, responded to criticism of the company's universal power unit (UPU) pricing model.

"Our goal is to try to represent best value for a particular system," he said. "Our pricing model is evolving and will keep evolving, but it is our best attempt at this time. We are continually looking to improve," said Rozwat.

Some users say the system is flawed. Ronan Miles, chairman of the UK Oracle user group, said Oracle's decision to use the speed and number of processors in a server to determine its UPU rating is too simplistic a way to measure hardware performance.

"The simple calculation for UPU may be flawed. Perhaps Oracle should consider something more complex involving memory and disc capacity," he said. "Users want to pay for Oracle by the amount it is used, but the problem is, how complex do you make it?"Rowzat added: "I don't think there's any one pricing model that is the most fair or most represents value for money. As an industry we have a long way to go."

Oracle has released version 2 of its 9i Application Server, designed to integrate more tightly with the Oracle database.

First published in Computing