Hi,

I have been a user of databases for a long time limited to writing queries & stored procedures (in my own schema and outside) but never really looked at or worried about how the servers are/can be installed & options that clients have to access the database and their licensing issues.

I'm in a new role where I need to setup one in my company which is trying to move away from its legacy software that apparently didn't have any databases.

In the new architecture we are moving into .NET (yet to decide standalone or web-interface); with SQL Server or Oracle database, whichever would cost us less.

What are the options I have?

I went through quite a bit of documentation about licensing on SQL Server & Oracle sites, got lost with terms like clusters, sockets and CALs.

I know it depends on various combinations. But, I need to present it to my company ASAP. Please help.

The number or users is ~50, but may increase.

Can all users use a single application login under one client license? Will it violate the licensing? I don't want to break any licensing agreements (which are not very clear) or break our company policies of doing so.

Will it effect concurrency?

I read that Oracle 11g has something called "unlimited users". I have a downloaded version of it.. not sure if it applies to that as well.. Then I would be running everything FREE in a production env. Can this be true? Why would Oracle do so and not SQL Server (if it doesn't).

I wish there is a matrix explaining the pros and cons of these combinations.

Please help.. sorry about the lengthy post..
Thanks!

Consider Mysql or Postgres, both are free.

I ought to choose between SQL Server and Oracle.
And it is not that we are looking for a free version.

We already have SQL Server - we don't know what type of licensing we have and can we use it in production env for about ~50 users.

Same is the case with 'a downloaded version of Oracle'.

If needed, we may buy but would it be ok to buy 1 license & 50 users use it behind 'an application login'?

SQL Server licensing can be either by processor (unlimited users) or by seat (you license each user). You should be able to get a salesman at Microsoft to tell you what the cost is per seat and per processor. I think at 100 users the seats end up cheaper, but there are a number of games that can be played with the newer processors that have multiple cores on one chip.

Instead of breaking your back trying to finger out the licensing convolutions, I'd take a complete different aproach... Call three or more well established vendors with experience configuring the tool(s) you want to buy, in this case SQL databases. Explain what you want/need and ask them for a written proposal. Compare the proposals that they prepare.

Licensing is tricky, and unless you are configuring dozens or hundreds of servers you can't possibly stay on top of the changing licensing landscape. Even if you did, you'll never keep up with the marketing schemes that the major software providers dream up on a daily basis.

I'm pretty comfortable that I know the appropriate answer for your question, but I haven't done that for about six months so I'd still go to a couple of the major SQL vendors to confirm my answer before I presented it to a client.

-PatP