Multi-machine clusters promise to slash costs

By ADAM GIFFORD

Database giant Oracle has finally launched the latest version of its core database, using it as an opportunity to target the colossus of the computing world, IBM.

The highlight of Oracle9i is "real application clusters" - the ability to run the database on multiple Machines, a feat that could significantly change the economics of computing.

If organisations can reliably run their databases on multiple low-end servers, they can trim millions of dollars off their hardware and operating costs.

Oracle's vice-president for 9i marketing, Rene Bonvanie, said the scalability of clustered databases had been limited by the need to rewrite the applications to understand how to work in a cluster.

Under the "shared nothing" cluster architecture used by IBM's DB2 database or Microsoft SQL Server on Unix or Windows NT, the database must be divided - all entries from A to E on one box, F to K on the next and so on.

If one server failed, the whole system fell over.

Mr Bonvanie said that with Oracle9i's "shared storage" architecture, the data was held in multiple instances across the cluster, so if a server broke the transactions continued.

Companies can make big savings when they move to commodity servers. For example, two of Sun's top-end E10000 servers with 64 processors will cost about $US5.2 million ($12.5 million).

The same amount of processing power can be provided by a cluster of 32 Sun 420R servers for $US1.5 million, or 32 four-processor Compaq DL580 servers for $US1 million.

As part of the launch, Oracle has gone back to the industry model of per-processor pricing, and will charge $US15,000 per processor for the standard version of Oracle9i and $US40,000 for the enterprise version.

Mr Bonvanie said this made it cheaper than IBM's $US20,000 a processor for DB2.

Also, customers who bought DB2 must then go back to the vendor to buy messaging tools such as MQ Series, business intelligence and analysis tools - which were standard features in 9i.

Mr Bonvanie said all applications that ran on earlier versions of the database would run on 9i.

Oracle needs something to preserve its dominance of the database market. Microsoft has overtaken it in databases on Windows NT, and IBM has indicated that it is more serious about the market with its acquisition of the Informix database line.

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