In a move designed to counter Microsoft's growing database influence, Oracle has quietly cut software prices on some lower-end servers using multicore processors. With the new pricing for Oracle's lower-end Standard Edition and Standard Edition One products, the software company now is effectively matching Microsoft's practice of pegging price to a server's processor socket count and rather than processor core count. The move could cut the costs of purchasing Oracle database software by as much as 87 percent in some cases. The move, described in an unpublicized pricing document on Oracle's Web site, took effect February 16, just days before Microsoft announced an update to its rival SQL Server 2005 software. This will be an interesting move by Oracle to gain back some market share from the grasp of Microsoft. The cost cut would greatly benefit Oracle and it will be interesting to see if Microsoft comes up with any counter attack plan.
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