Dell And Oracle Target SMBs

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and Michael Dell co-hosted a press conference announcing the deal, which will preinstall the Oracle database on Dell servers running Linux and Windows at a cost of roughly $4,995 per processor or $149 per user. Dell will handle first-level support while Oracle will take on second-level support as needed.

The two companies announced a similar partnership last year with Oracle's 9i database and Dell's PowerEdge servers, and this agreement broadens that relationship.

Ellison says that the prepackaging of software and services together into preconfigured devices is the way the industry is evolving. "Ease of use is the wave of the future, and Dell has established itself as the overwhelming leader in delivering hardware, software and services packages to customers," he says.

Dell says he hopes the initiative will extend both companies' reach into the SMB space while also strengthening its enterprise business. "We think the trend toward standards-based hardware is irreversible, and we've now extended it to the SMB customer," he says. "This makes the technology more affordable and available to a wider range of customers, and we think it also will expand our presence in the high-end server market."

Ellison has long contended that even the largest organizations can use grid computing frameworks comprised of small computers linked together, and partnering so closely with Dell will help customers see further demonstrations of that. "This is not the scaled-down version of the Oracle database; this is the full version," he says. "The system is very easy to expand, and it brings fault-tolerant, high-performance computing to small and medium businesses. We have no more important partner than Dell. Together we're encouraging even large businesses to hook their smaller machines into grids."