Microsoft shrugs off latest Oracle-Dell play on SMB market
eWeek | at | by Mike
Oracle's announcement Tuesday that it is bundling its Standard Edition One database prepackaged on Dell PowerEdge servers formed the latest salvo in the ongoing database price war launched against Microsoft and its low-cost SQL Server database. Predictably, Microsoft was dismissive of the move.
"They did the same thing back with Standard Edition One," said Mitch Gatchalian, product manager for SQL Server, in Redmond, Wash., referring to a January announcement by Oracle President Chuck Phillips at Oracle AppsWorld. At that time, Phillips said it was time to go on the offensive against Microsoft and that pricing for the Windows version of Oracle Database 10g would be set at the same list price per processor as SQL Server.
"They said, 'We'll lower the price and compete with Microsoft,'" Gatchalian said. "There didn't seem to be much uptake there, so they're trying a new trick."