COMPARATIVE MANAGEABILITY COST STUDY REVIEWS DATABASES.

In a head-to-head, comparative manageability cost study conducted by Edison Group, Oracle(R) Database 10g outperformed IBM DB2 Universal Database v8.2 (DB2 UDB 8.2) and delivered significant cost and time savings over the competing database.

Edison Group, a technology analysis and consulting firm that provides competitive product and market intelligence, conducted rigorous manageability testing of Oracle Database 10g and DB2 UDB 8.2. Following a series of thorough evaluations, Edison Group determined that enterprises using Oracle Database 10g instead of IBM's database software gain the following advantages:

* 46 percent reduction in time needed to perform typical administrative tasks

* 29 percent decrease in complexity as measured by the number of steps needed for the same set of relational database management system (RDBMS) tasks

* Potential annual savings of up to $50,065 per DBA (from increased administrator productivity)

"Oracle Database 10g ups the ante for database manageability and leaves competitors playing catch up," said Barry Cohen, CTO, Edison Group. "IT administrators increasingly are being asked to shoulder more responsibility, and the productivity gains offered by Oracle Database 10g can significantly reduce the DBA workload."

Oracle Database 10g delivers superior performance diagnostics and tuning

There were several areas in which Oracle Database 10g out-performed DB2 UDB 8.2. In particular, Oracle Database 10g stood out in performance diagnostics and tuning as well as in data backup and recovery. By proactively identifying performance bottlenecks and recommending possible remedies, Oracle Database 10g takes 76 percent less time than IBM's latest version of DB2 for the same set of database tuning functions. On the data recovery front, Oracle's superior architecture incorporating the unique Flashback feature reduces the time required to recover from user errors by more than 58 percent compared to DB2 UDB 8.2.

"At Oracle, we consistently focus on ease-of-use because we understand that better usability and manageability deliver value to our customers," said Richard Sarwal, vice president of Server Performance and Manageability, Oracle Corp. "Automating routine tasks and streamlining more complex procedures performed by DBAs not only gives them time to focus on higher-level initiatives, but it also reduces the potential for human error and increases system reliability."

The complete results of Edison Group's "Comparative Management Cost Study: Oracle Database 10g and IBM UDB DB2 8.2" are available at the following: http://www.theedison.com/research/gems/110104rdbmscmcs.pdf.

About Oracle Database 10g

Oracle Database 10g is designed to be effectively deployed on everything from small blade servers to the biggest SMP servers and clusters of all sizes. It features automated management capabilities for easy, cost-effective operation. Oracle Database 10g's unique ability to manage all data from traditional business information to XML documents and spatial/location information makes it the ideal choice to power Online Transaction Processing, Decision Support and Content Management Applications.

For more information, call 650/607-6458 or visit http://www.oracle.com.