Well how things have changed since Oracle have taken over and the cost of running a Solaris system is out of reach of most people and business now.
Oracle Premier Support cost is 12% of cost of hardware Per Year!
Lets compare this with HP and Microsoft Windows.
HP System & MS Windows HP ProLiant DL380 system £3292 HP 5 year Hardware support £495 Micosoft Server 2008 Academic Lic * £93 Total Support Cost for 5 years (3.5% p/y) £588 How much would it cost me with Oracle Support rates (with Solaris) for 5 years (12% p/y) £1975 Sun/Oracle & Solaris Sun Fire X4170 2CPU+32GB £6250 Oracle 5 Year Premier Support (£750 per year) £3750 Sun Fire X4170 2CPU+32GB (bought from SUN 2010), Support costs us approx £130 per year £650
* Micosoft Server 2008 Academic Lic
I think I need to clarify the cheap Microsoft license. Since we are a University we can use the Microsoft Campus Enrollment which allows us to obtain many Microsoft products and heavily discounted prices. But what about Support. I am trying to check what telephone support level we get, but one thing is for sure you can obtain software updates, patches and hot fixes as part of the deal. This is the thing which Oracle is missing or I have not managed to speak to someone who is can give me a better answer.
