Comments on: Tuesday and Wednesday at Collaborate’06

By: Mark Rittman

Mark Rittman — Wed, 03 May 2006 06:48:00 +0000

Hi Brian
Where I was coming from, was that I was trying to think up ways to justify the BI EE Suite pricetag, i.e. what existing parts of the architecture can it replace. My thinking was that, in a traditional BI / reporting project, one of the first things you think you need is a database, into which you’ll copy all the data you wish to report on. Now, the Siebel Analytic Server does away for the need for this integration layer, you can point it direct to your data sources, and it gives you an OLAP-style analysis capability, hence conceivably you could do away with the DB+OLAP Option.
In reality though, you’re right, you’re still going to want an Oracle database – either again, to do some integration and data cleansing (the latter being the key part), and to just provide your data. Also, given my talks with the SA people last week, realistically you’re still going to want access to an OLAP server (Oracle OLAP, MS AS) as the SA analytic engine isn’t a MOLAP server as we know it, it’s more akin to a ROLAP engine, so for your true high-end forecasting, OLAP calculations, even access to pre-aggregated data, you’ll still want the OLAP Option.
I’m working through a presentation and paper on this very subject actually, once I’ve done it, i’ll post it to the blog and get some feedback. It’ll be along the lines of “How the Oracle BI Analytic Engine fits into a traditional Oracle DW architecture”.

By: Brian Macdonald

Brian Macdonald — Wed, 03 May 2006 02:05:00 +0000

Mark,
Can you comment on why you stated “(which could remove the need for an Oracle database + OLAP Option)” I don’t think the analytical server would remove the need for a database.
I would love to understand your thoughts in more depth.
Thanks,
Brian

By: Mark

Mark — Sun, 30 Apr 2006 22:42:00 +0000

Hi Pete
I’m still trying to come to terms with the EE pricetag – $225k per CPU, which means $1m for a reasonable, 4 CPU deployment, is certainly not a mass market proposition. It also significantly reduces the amount of potential customers for a consulting practice such as ours (and yours I presume).
As you say, the $25k per CPU for the SE-1 offering is good, but it lacks the alerting and delivery options of the EE, which doesn’t really leave you with much more than you get with the standard, Standard edition. Certainly I think the SE-One edition is the one we’ll come into contact with most, in realistic terms it’ll be the only version most small to medium size organisations in the UK will be able to afford.

By: Pete_S

Pete_S — Thu, 27 Apr 2006 19:37:00 +0000

At first I thought 1/4 million per cpu sounded expensive.. but the price stacks well against other tools – and the SE-1 price of $25,000 for upto 50 users and including database and OWB, well!