EnterpriseDB offers Oracle database users a 'bailout program' |
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By Ed Scannell, Site Editor
04 Aug 2009 | SearchOracle.com |
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Hoping to steal away Oracle customers in light of that company's price hikes, open source vendor EnterpriseDB has unveiled a program to entice them to migrate from Oracle to Postgres Plus Advanced Server.
Slyly calling it an "Oracle Bailout Program," the Oracle Migration Assessment Program was created in direct response to Oracle's quietly raising prices on selected database modules up to 40% on July 1.
"Oracle's price hikes might be good news for those on Wall Street, but they're terrible news for IT departments trying to function in the worst economy since the Great Depression," said Ed Boyajian, the president and CEO of EnterpriseDB.
The new program essentially helps enterprise customers to migrate any and all applications running on top of Oracle databases to the Postgres product, which is an open source-based database with a built-in Oracle compatibility layer. EnterpriseDB officials said they are guaranteeing no disruptions to an IT shop's operation during a migration.
"This seems like a nice alternative for people looking to save a little money by going open source with a single departmental app. I don't know how many mission-critical deployments this will attract," said John Handy, a database administrator with a large Chicago-based financial institution.
Boyajian said that the program starts with an assessment that involves an evaluation complete with a benefit analysis and the most suitable methodology for migrating to the Postgres product based on a user's individual needs.
If a company wants to proceed, EnterpriseDB then supplies it with whatever products and services it needs to complete the migration.
One of those tools is the Advanced Server Migration Studio, which provides "push-button migration" capable of converting software packages, schema, data, stored procedures, database links and a range of other functions directly into a Postgres-compatible infrastructure, according to Boyajian.
Trying to play on fears among some users of MySQL, the popular open source database Oracle has picked up as part of the Sun Microsystems acquisition, EnterpriseDB officials said the recent database price hikes could portend what Oracle has in store for MySQL users. Some users weren't exactly rattled.
Handy said that "it's a little too early for people to get hyper-focused on what Oracle might do with MySQL -- if they ever do anything."
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