Just before winter break, Cornell officials shook hands on a deal that brings an industry leader's database management software to campus for a fraction of the standard cost.
Under this five-year support agreement, Cornell faculty and staff can, for $3,100 per processor, obtain most of Oracle's product line, including the Oracle 9i database server edition, enterprise database options, Internet application servers, tools, sales applications and other server products. Included in that cost are a perpetual license, round-the-clock technical support from Oracle and upgrade protection.
The agreement was the culmination of a year's worth of discussions, evaluations, comparisons and negotiations by Vincent Patriarco and Glenn Morey of Purchasing Services; Patricia McClary of the Office of the University Counsel; and Rick MacDonald, Catherine Dougherty, Chuck Jessop and Agelia Dumas of Cornell Information Technologies.
Oracle is a powerful, integrated way to store and manage large amounts of data and give access to thousands of simultaneous users from many types of computer operating systems. Groups on campus that already use Oracle include the School of Hotel Administration, the Lab of Ornithology, Campus Life, Cornell University Library and Administration, Facilities and Finance.
Services at Cornell that have been running on rival Informix, such as PeopleSoft applications and the time-clock system Kronos, will be migrated to Oracle. A key factor in moving to Oracle was the fact that the next version of PeopleSoft is not certified for use on Informix. Among universities that have deployed PeopleSoft products, Oracle is the most prevalent database management system.
For additional information, or to take advantage of the pricing offered through this agreement, faculty and staff should contact Chuck Jessop at cej4@cornell.edu or 255-3016. This pricing is not available directly from Oracle.
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