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Oracle Corp. and Dell Inc. have served up the latest gambit in their dual-front attack on the SMB market, announcing on Tuesday that they're prepackaging Oracle Database 10g Standard Edition One with Microsoft Corp. Windows Server 2003 on yet more Dell PowerEdge servers.
The two companies announced in April a prepackaging of 10g on PowerEdge 2600 and 2650 servers. At that time, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and Dell Chairman and CEO Michael Dell gathered journalists and analysts together to paint a picture of a small and midsize business market that was ripe with sales opportunities and wide open to the gospel of grid computing.
At that time, Ellison said that Oracle has "been pushing grid technology hard, not only for small- and medium-sized business customers but [also for] large customers. We're encouraging them to use groups or grids of machines to take on their computing tasks," he said. "I can think of no one better than Dell to focus on small machines and turning those machines into grids. … [Oracle is] ready for the SMB market."
The latest server packages are geared for SMBs and enterprise departments that run Windows and that don't want the hassle of configuring separate components. The package announced on Tuesday comes with a customized dashboard that lets customers execute common, predefined database administration tasks. The dashboard is included on the Windows Server start bar.
The companies are touting the packages' easy-to-purchase nature, as well. They come with shrink-wrapped licensing preloaded on Dell servers at no additional cost and provide all necessary hardware and software along with the Database 10g Standard Edition One license, all available by just breaking the seal.
The factory-installed package is available immediately from Dell on PowerEdge 2850 machines. It will be out on PowerEdge 2800 servers in the fourth quarter. Prices vary by configuration and include the PowerVault V220S external storage system.
Oracle is based in Redwood Shores, Calif. Dell is based in Round Rock, Texas.
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Copyright © 2004 Ziff Davis Media Inc. All Rights Reserved. Originally appearing in eWEEK.
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