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back to article Cabinet Office gears up to ink mega Oracle deal

The Cabinet Office is gearing up to ink another mega pan-government Oracle licensing deal, multiple sources have told The Register. One person close to the matter told us: "Government is supposed to be moving away from big monopolies by big companies, especially expensive ones that operate bully behaviour like Oracle. "Yet it …

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  1. dave 93
    Trollface

    You really have a problem with Apple products

    Airbrushing the Apple logo from the iMac in the picture is lame. Why do that?

    I am still waiting for you to come-clean at El Reg and tell us what kind of computers and phones you use.

    Your silence on the El Reg's use, or not, of Apple products speaks volumes...

    3 12 Reply
    1. Jon 37
      Reply Icon
      Boffin

      Re: You really have a problem with Apple products

      Most of El Reg's pictures are just stock photos they buy from a stock photo site. It's quite likely that the stock photo site airbrushed out the logo - they wouldn't have had Apple's permission to use their logo in images they're selling, so airbrushing it out is the easy option.

      8 0 Reply
  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sums it up nicely

    "Government is supposed to be moving away from big monopolies by big companies, especially expensive ones that operate bully behaviour like Oracle."

    As a taxpayer, I strongly object.

    3 0 Reply
  3. PassiveSmoking

    Just use Postgres!

    6 1 Reply
    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      Given the level of Government competence I thought they used post-it notes stuck the their monitors instead.

      5 0 Reply
      1. Anonymous Coward
        Reply Icon
        Anonymous Coward

        That's just for passwords/authentication ;)

        2 0 Reply
    2. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Anonymous Coward

      'We look forward to seeing your plans for migrating off our products'."

      That's the key to Oracle behaviour. Migrating away from Oracle can easily tun into a bloodbath, especially if the application depends on many of the Oracle features which are not available in databases like Postgres, and if you rely also on other Oracle applications.

      Even a database like Postgres that attempts to be (mostly) compatible with Oracle is not a 1:1 replacement - a migration would be complex and expensive still.

      Oracle knows, and aims for you throat as soon as it can, and more so now its bottom line has been eaten up by cheaper databases - they need to make money from the large ones, where it is still difficult to be replaced. Just a FOSS project aimed to replace complex database like Oracle would need a lot of resources, much more than the Postgres project has, or MariaDB.

      0 0 Reply
  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Licensing with these big vendors is a requirement and by putting all the organisations together may look like a large budget item, but its a darn sight cheaper than buying them all individually.

    as The NHS found out when it got rid of its Microsoft Enterprise agreement, spending with Microsoft across the NHS is a great deal more, its just not the big ticket item on the NHS budget, with the smaller organisations footing the biggest increases.

    0 0 Reply
  5. Anonymous Coward
    Facepalm

    The UK a world leader in the digital transformation of government

    The Register Dec 2015: 'In introducing Manzoni, Nefkens described the UK as a world leader in the “digital transformation of government”, a model even for similar schemes in the USA and Australia. Furthermore, New Zealand has used Gov.uk source code - it’s based on open standards and is open source - to help build out own digital services.'

    1 0 Reply
  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hotel Oracle

    Welcome to the Hotel Oracle

    Such a lovely place (said the salesman who spoke to the CEO at golf)

    Such a lovely face

    Plenty of discounted licences at the Hotel Oracle (when you first sign up)

    Any time of year (any time of year) you can find it here

    -------------------------------

    After a year or two of using it, when the price increased...

    -------------------------------

    Last thing I remember, I was

    Running for the door

    I had to find the passage back to the place I was before

    'Relax' said your account manager

    'We are programmed to receive

    You can check out any time you like

    But you can never leave!'

    15 0 Reply
  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I could hear the mournful sound of guitar(s) as read that. Well done!

    4 0 Reply
  8. Kay_terra

    I can hear Stephen Kelly spinning in his exquisitely tailored suit and pulling out his immaculately coiffed hair. In his original role as Crown Commercial Representative for Oracle, before becoming Cabinet Office COO he opined regularly on the evil that was Oracle, even going so far as to say that they were rummaging in his bins trying to denigrate and discredit him.

    Seems, even if they found nothing, the tactic was successful as Kelly went upwards and onwards to less confrontational roles, and Oracle found an opposite in CCS who was a lot less capable in deflecting their shark like tactics.

    0 0 Reply

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