January 8, 2015 at 8:08 am
Hello everyone! I am working on an analysis of database enhancement ideas for our project and the customer has this "thing" for Oracle. We are currently running SQL 2008 and I am a die hard SQL admin. I've been trying to research some hard facts about promoting SQL over Oracle. I can come up with some high level things like cost and labor intensive to make the switch but I was hoping to get some lower level points to drive home. Most of the articles I find say they are on par with each other or are really old. I was hoping to get some technical things to make a strong argument that staying with SQL is "better" because.....
Any insight is appreciated. 🙂
January 8, 2015 at 8:28 am
Well for one thing if you're are primarily a windows based company then SQL server just plain integrates with MS products better.
January 8, 2015 at 8:52 am
Consider the expertise of the employees.
There have been cases when companies decide to use Oracle because "it's better" but there's no one with enough knowledge to maintain it and tune it correctly, ending up in a big investment with more problems than benefits.
January 8, 2015 at 8:58 am
Thanks for the replies, very good points.
I'm more looking for technical benefits.
January 8, 2015 at 9:17 am
You can go back and forth all day on the little technical, well SQL Server does this, well Oracle does this details. There's massive SQL Server implementations and massive Oracle implementations.
I would add this for SQL Server though, you get a more complete solution as you'll be getting SSIS, SSAS, SSRS depending on what edition you get. Oracle yeah not so much so enjoy paying a lot for equivalent options.....
January 8, 2015 at 9:33 am
I understand there are nit noid things and its like comparing a Mercedes to a BMW but I need ANYTHING that I can stress to the customer (who is the government) to sway them from thinking Oracle is the way to go. I refuse to administer an Oracle system and I need as much ammunition as I can muster. In the end, they may say screw you we want Oracle anyways and that's fine but I'd like to present a very good argument.
For example, I read that that SQL has a better optimizer than Oracle. But yes thank you, I will be using the "complete package" thing as one of my benefits.
January 8, 2015 at 9:41 am
One thing that could be a huge factor is licensing.
January 8, 2015 at 10:52 am
Unfortunately, the devil is in the details on the tech. There's not a single winning piece of tech on the Microsoft side. I think the only winning piece of tech I would point to on the Oracle side is RAC. And that, from people I've talked to, is more than a little problematic. Otherwise, they're pretty comparable with the main differences being in what they support, how they support it, and what you get out of the box. For example, one piece of tech that was vital to me at the insurance company I used to work at was spatial data. From 2008, Microsoft gave that to me with my license. For Oracle, I had to go and pay for it, in addition to my license.
What kind of work are you doing? That might help us find some strong points.
One issue with Oracle that sometimes comes up, both for and against it, is that Microsoft has a much healthier third party eco-system. Now the Oracle people exclaim "That's because we don't need anything more than what Oracle provides us" usually as they're opening their Toad PL/SQL editor. But you have more flexibility on the SQL Server side because of all the third party vendor support.
Another issue with Oracle is places like this. I constantly hear from Oracle people about how they wish they had the kind of community that SQL Server has around the tools. SQL Server Central, #sqlhelp on Twitter, the PASS organization, SQL Saturday, just all the help and support you get, for free, from umpty-billion blogs from all the smart people like Paul Randal, Aaron Bertrand, Tom Larock. Free tools like SQL Minion from the Midnight DBAs. We're a giving bunch.
Unfortunately, some of that is a little touchy-feely & intangible. If you can point to something other than straight relational storage that you do or need, we might be able to come up with better answers.
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
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January 8, 2015 at 1:57 pm
I'll add that if the shop will primarily be a .NET shop, I'd go with SQL Server.
On a personal note, I've found Oracle to be pretty restrictive in some of the things it does or doesn't do. I worked with it for 3 years and hated every minute of it even though I got pretty good at it.
--Jeff Moden
Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.
January 8, 2015 at 2:23 pm
Jeff Moden (1/8/2015)
I'll add that if the shop will primarily be a .NET shop, I'd go with SQL Server.On a personal note, I've found Oracle to be pretty restrictive in some of the things it does or doesn't do. I worked with it for 3 years and hated every minute of it even though I got pretty good at it.
Maybe I'm just used to SQL Server but after starting in Oracle trying to do date manipulations in Oracle made me want to cry.
January 8, 2015 at 2:39 pm
One additional thing to consider regarding cost. it is true that SQL Server gives you extras such as SSAS and SSRS for 'free'. But you still need to license the number of cores, and in a large scale deployment, those components will not be on the database server. I am just pointing this out, because you would undermine your case if additional licenses for the non-database server had to be purchased later.
January 8, 2015 at 2:39 pm
My experience with Oracle support is that it is much better than Microsoft when you have to call, though you absolutely pay for it. Microsoft problems 99 times out of a hundred you can find info on the web. Oracle Nickel and Dimes you for every little piece and they are HARD sellers. We talk with our local "representatives" and all they do is try to sell us new products. We even had a call expressly to find out how we could get more value out of what we have already purchased. Of course this turned into major sales pitch. My colleague found this article the other day and it speaks volumes. http://news360.com/digestarticle/E8QICas5I0u-4yXmzY8oDA# It might not help for convincing your customer, but I feel better venting.
January 8, 2015 at 2:41 pm
I strongly believe in the KISS principle. Keep It SQL Server 🙂
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January 8, 2015 at 5:02 pm
LOL you guys are funny. I also cannot stand the way Oracle handles dates and it drives me batty trying to convert them and actually get my queries to give me the date ranges I want. I also find it easier to optimize query performance in SQL than Oracle.
Not to mention, I tried to create a job in Oracle once and it was like 10 different steps just to get the damn thing created and scheduled.
Anyhoo...
Our system uses a Cold Fusion front end at the moment but we also have a .NET piece and our web services are in .NET. We also have a lot of external system interfaces that are currently done with Linked Servers but will either be switched to SSIS packages or to web services. Our database isn't all that complicated we don't do failover clustering, or db mirroring or anything fancy. DB is also relatively small - its about 15gigs and our backup files are under 2gigs compressed. Users also do a lot with uploading files to our system either by .xls, .doc or pdf as well as download data in those forms.
The contract that we have is split between us and another group that manages a different system and they are on Oracle and they actually sit at the client site where we are offsite. So, I think this is a big reason Oracle is being pushed because they have the customer's ear.
I appreciate all the feedback though whether it helps my situation or just allows you to vent a little. 🙂
January 9, 2015 at 7:23 am
One thing that has been a deciding factor for a company I worked for was Oracle only had data file encryption if you paid for an addon license. Whereas, the feature in SQL Server is bundled with the Enterprise license, TDE. Once again this is just a cost thing, which has been mentioned.
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