INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
INTELLIGENCE CONSULTING
Stratus ftServer and SQL Server
Deliver Continuous Availability
January 2012
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Table of Contents
Executive Summary...................................................................................................3
Introduction..............................................................................................................6
Data & Analysis.........................................................................................................8
Reliability Overview & Cost of Downtime .................................................................8
Stratus ftServer Continuous Availability ................................................................. 10
SQL Server 2012 .............................................................................................. 12
SQL Server Availability Advantages .................................................................... 12
Potential Impact of Virtualization and Cloud on Availability ..................................... 14
Stratus ftServer/SQL Server vs. Oracle SPARC, x86 and Oracle DB .......................... 18
Oracle Customer Dissatisfaction ............................................................................ 18
Conclusions & Recommendations ............................................................................. 20
References/Further Reading .................................................................................... 22
Stratus Technologies References ....................................................................... 22
Microsoft SQL Server References ....................................................................... 22
Appendices ............................................................................................................. 23
Methodology ........................................................................................................... 25
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Page 2
Executive Summary
“Uptime. All the time.” Stratus Technologies’ mission statement.
There is never a good time for a server to go down or an application to be unavailable.
In the 21st century, the only good downtime is no downtime.
An organization’s ability to provide uninterrupted and unimpeded data access to end users,
customers, business partners and suppliers is crucial to every aspect of business operations.
When the servers, desktops and applications are unavailable for any reason, business ceases.
Outages of even a few minutes can have immediate, far reaching and sometimes unintended
consequences. The financial costs associated with even a few minutes of unplanned downtime
can range from hundreds, thousands or even millions. Outages that occur during crucial data
transmissions such as monetary transactions, transmitting legal documents or critical medical
data or data transmitted from an airplane’s flight recorder can prove as equally catastrophic to
the business and its customers as a monetary loss.
Businesses and their end users need 24 x7 access to their data. It’s imperative for all
corporations, irrespective of size and vertical market, to deploy server hardware and databases
that can deliver very high and continuous availability to minimize downtime to seconds or
minutes a year. Today’s “always on” users and networks require optimal integration and
interoperability between servers and databases. IT departments also need top-notch technical
support and assurances that server hardware and database vendors will quickly respond to and
resolve issues in the event of an outage.
Stratus Technologies Inc. fault tolerant ftServer systems running Microsoft SQL Server database
can deliver the highest degree of availability in the industry at a cost effective price point. Based
in Maynard, MA, Stratus has spent more than three decades hardening the reliability of its
servers to deliver mainframe-like fault tolerance. Stratus is the only hardware vendor to offer an
Uptime Assurance guarantee. The fault tolerant reliability of the Stratus ftServer platform is an
excellent complement to Microsoft’s SQL Server, which is one of the most widely deployed
database platforms. In the past several years, Microsoft’s has made tangible across-the-board
improvements in SQL Server’s embedded features, performance, reliability, scalability and
security. These enhancements have enabled SQL Server to retain its installed base and expand its
presence in mid-market and large enterprises in a wide variety of vertical markets.
The combination of Stratus ftServer and Microsoft SQL Server delivers:

Better price, performance and superior licensing terms and conditions. Stratus
ftServer 2600, 4500 and 6310 server models provide customers with round-the-clock
monitoring services that ensure the highest level of availability and resiliency. Stratus
delivers "Uptime Assurance." Microsoft offers out-of-the-box functionality and ease of
use at a better price than Oracle’s 11g and Oracle’s Real Application Clusters (RAC).
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Page 3
Organizations can run SQL Server 2008 R2 on Stratus ftServer for a fraction of the cost
(one-third to one-fifth less depending on the size and scope of the individual user
deployment) of comparable Oracle 11g DB and Oracle RAC solutions running on
propriety Oracle SPARC or Oracle x86 hardware.

A much higher degree of availability than Oracle SPARC, Oracle x86 and Oracle
RAC systems. ITIC’s independent 2011 Global Server Hardware and Server OS
Reliability Survey of 400 businesses found that 83% of Stratus ftServer users say they
“Rarely” experience downtime due to inherent server hardware issues. By contrast, only
56% of Oracle SPARC and 52% of Oracle x86 users said outages due to server hardware
failures “Rarely” occurred on those platforms (See Exhibit 1).

Superior Availability compared to Oracle SPARC server. Overall, Stratus ftServer
provides much higher availability levels than Oracle SPARC servers. The ITIC
Reliability Survey found that a 59% majority of Stratus ftServer users reported
experiencing just 1 to 5 minutes of unavailability per server/per annum – an uptime
equivalent between 99.999 to 99.9999%. Only 42% of Oracle users indicated they
experience 1 to 5 minutes of downtime per server/per annum (See Exhibit 3), according
to the latest ITIC October 2011 Reliability poll. The same survey found an 83%
majority of Stratus ftServer users say they “Rarely” experience downtime compared to
Oracle SPARC and Oracle x86 users – 56% and 52% respectively -- who indicated that
they “Rarely” experienced downtime on those platforms.

SQL Server’s new AlwaysOn integrated high availability and disaster recovery
solution. AlwaysOn provides failover redundancy within a datacenter and across
datacenters. This provides customers with fast application failover during planned and
unplanned downtime. AlwaysOn delivers a suite of new enhancements for disaster
recovery when used with Stratus ftServers that provide corporations with some of the
highest industry uptime rates.

Stronger, more solid and stable relationships than rival Oracle. Stratus and Microsoft
have a strong, decade-long cooperative relationship. Independent industry surveys and
news articles indicate the Oracle SPARC installed base is increasingly restive and
nervous with Oracle’s lack of a detailed SPARC roadmap. Additionally, Oracle’s OEM
relationships are problematic and prickly. The relationship with Hewlett-Packard has
been contentious and tumultuous over the past year and a half. And there are no signs it
will improve anytime soon. Customers know they could get caught in the cross fire and
become casualties of the multiple lawsuits HP and Oracle are waging against one another.

The most secure database platform. From January 2008 through November 2011,
Microsoft’s SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2 have recorded just 22 security vulnerabilities,
according to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). This is the least
of any major database platform. NIST recorded nearly eight times as many security
flaws for Oracle’s 11g database server -- 164 vulnerabilities during the same three and a
half-year time span.
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Page 4
Exhibit 1. Eight out of 10 Stratus ftServer Users Rarely Experience Downtime
How often do you experience server hardware failures
on each server platform? (Select ALL that apply)
Stratus ftServer
83%
9%
Oracle x86
27%
Oracle SPARC
23%
Intel White Box
IBM Power Systems
19%
Rarely
64%
77%
22%
20%
13%
Several times a year
64%
73%
13%
HP ProLiant
Dell Power Edge
56%
10%
IBM System x
HP Integrity
52%
60%
72%
NOTE: None – 0% - of respondents
said they “Never” experienced server
hardware failures
Copyright © 2011 ITIC All Rights Reserved
Source: ITIC November 2011
The combination of Stratus Technologies fault tolerant ftServer and Microsoft SQL Server can
deliver server and database availability up to 99.9999%– the highest in the industry.
This White Paper references news reports, customer case studies, publicly available product
information and independent surveys by ITIC and other research firms to document the business
and technology value proposition of Stratus’ ftServer products and Microsoft SQL Server. It also
details the competitive cost, performance and availability advantages offered by the Stratus
ftServer system and Microsoft SQL Server solutions compared with Oracle 11g DB and Oracle
RAC running on Oracle SPARC systems.
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Page 5
Introduction
Server hardware is the foundation and bedrock upon which the applications run and which
provide the conduit to transfer, receive and process data. Databases are a company’s electronic
filing system. The information contained in the database directly influences and impacts every
aspect of the organization’s daily operations including relationships with customers, business
partners, suppliers and its own internal end users. All of these users must have the ability to
quickly, efficiently and securely locate and access data. The database platform must provide rock
solid reliability, 24 x 7 access to data and high security. An unreliable, insecure, porous database
platform will almost certainly compromise business operations and, by association, any firm that
does business with it. Anytime the server and its accompanying applications are unavailable, it
disrupts business operations for employees as well as business partners, suppliers and customers.
Server and database outages can result in lost or damaged data, lost revenue and damage to the
company’s reputation. All of these issues raise the potential for litigation and loss of business.
Depending on the size of the organization and its specific business, hourly downtime losses can
range from thousands to millions of dollars. A small company with 100 employees or fewer is
just as likely to find an outage of an hour to several hours as catastrophic as a very large financial
services, healthcare or government organization with thousands of employees. Corporations must
also consider the length, severity and the timing of an outage to correctly determine the impact
on the business, employees and customers. An outage of even a few minutes can be catastrophic
if it occurs at the wrong time. Additionally, IT staff could be bogged down for weeks performing
remediation efforts that divert them from other more pressing daily operations.
Given these realities, it makes sense that more than seven out of 10 organizations – 73% -- now
require higher availability and reliability for mainstream line of business (LOB) servers and
applications than they did five years ago. That’s according to the latest October 2011 joint ITIC
and Stratus Technologies survey which polled C-level executives and IT managers at 300+
corporations worldwide on high availability costs and issues. That same poll found:

A 53% majority of organizations now regard 51% to 100% of their applications as
mission critical to the business.

A 54% majority of survey respondents say their business requires a minimum of
99.99%/four nines of availability (See Exhibit 2). That is the equivalent of 52 minutes of
unplanned downtime on each server or server-based application per year.

One-quarter of those polled said hourly losses for each mission critical server or
application outage costs their organizations over $100,000. And 10% of the total
respondent base estimates hourly downtime losses exceed $250,000.
In the 1980s and 1990s, 99% uptime or 87.6 hours of per server/application yearly downtime
was the acceptable norm. Not so today, when organizations rely completely on their networks
and applications to conduct business. By contrast, 99.99% high availability (HA) decreases
application unavailability rates to approximately 52 minutes of per server/per application
annually.
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Page 6
Although organizations require a much higher degree of uptime, achieving the “Holy Grail” of
five nines (99.999%) of continuous availability – a scant five minutes of unplanned downtime -has never been more challenging thanks to:

Increased IT complexity

An increase in the complexity of technologies like virtualization and cloud computing

Overworked IT staff, frequently lacking sufficient training and certification. This results in a
higher degree of human error.

A prevalence of complicated failover technologies that can never deliver four nines of
availability
A rise in integration and interoperability issues due to greater numbers of applications,
different software versions and incompatible drivers


Vendors’ inability to quickly release patches, upgrades and provide technical guidance and
documentation

Pressure on end users to apply a constant stream of patches, or place operations at risk
Exhibit 2. No Time for Downtime: 54% of Organizations Require at least
99.95% - “Four Nines” Uptime
What is the minimum acceptable level of uptime
required for the most business critical server hardware
and database applications?
3% 3%
Less than 99%
9%
20%
99% (87.66 hours of
unplanned annual downtime)
99.9% (8.76 hours of
unplanned annual downtime)
34%
31%
99.95% (52 minutes of
unplanned annual downtime)
99.999% (5.25 minutes of
unplanned annual downtime)
>99.999% (52 seconds of
unplanned annual downtime)
Copyright © 2011 ITIC All Rights Reserved
Source: ITIC November 2011
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Page 7
Data & Analysis
Reliability Overview & Cost of Downtime
As far as corporate management and IT departments are concerned, anything that causes them to
take the server offline -- such as taking a Windows server offline to apply an unanticipated patch
or security fix -- is unplanned downtime. When network and application access is disrupted,
employees will feel the impact immediately and business operations will grind to a halt.
Depending on the severity and length of the incident, the downtime may also result in lost or
damaged data. Many IT departments measure uptime and reliability by the amount of time the
server hardware or operating system is offline or out of service on a monthly basis. The
following is a guideline to assist organizations in determining the uptime and reliability of their
server hardware and server OS platforms on a monthly basis.
Nines of Availability
99.0%
99.9%
99.99%
99.999%
99.9999%
Downtime per Year
87.6 hours
8.76 hours
52.5 minutes
5.25 minutes
31.5 seconds
Downtime is measured not only by the duration but also by the severity of the occurrence.
Outages are classified as Tier 1, Tier 2 and Tier 3.

Tier 1: These are the typically minor common, albeit annoying occurrences. A network
administrator can usually resolve such incidents with less than 30 minutes for dependent
users. The solution to Tier 1 incidents is usually a straightforward server or server-based
application (e.g. a local or remote DB) reboot. They rarely involve any data loss.

Tier 2: These are moderate issues in which the server may be offline from one hour to four
hours. Tier 2 problems may require intervention by several network administrators to
troubleshoot and resolve. Tier 2 outages frequently affect the corporation’s end users.
Business partners’, customers’ and suppliers’ operations may also be adversely impacted in
the event they are attempting to access data on an affected corporate extranet. Data loss is
possible and some remediation is required.

Tier 3: This is the most severe incident category. Tier 3 outages are of longer than four hours
duration for network administrators and the company’s associated dependent users. A Tier 3
outage can also be one of short duration but one that includes a “Perfect Storm” that
precipitates s a service disruption and/or lost data at the most inopportune time. Tier 3 outages
almost always require a team of network administrators to resolve. There is a high likelihood
of data loss and damage to systems and applications. A protracted Tier 3 outage may result in
lost business and damage to the company’s reputation and raises the likelihood of litigation.
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Page 8
In 2012, it is almost inconceivable to imagine how any organization could withstand 87.6 hours
of annual downtime associated with each of its main line of business (LOB) mission critical
servers or databases! And yet, 99% availability was considered an acceptable industry standard
or norm in the early 1990s. Currently, as Exhibit 2 above shows, one-third of organizations
consider 99.9% or 8.76 hours of per server/per application downtime annually to be the
minimum acceptable standard; while another 31% say their businesses require four nines or
99.99% availability. Another 23% indicate their firms require the highest levels of five and six
nines of availability -- 5.25 minutes and 31.5 seconds, respectively.
Stratus ftServer used in conjunction with Microsoft’s SQL Server are specifically engineered to
deliver the highest levels of availability. All of the aforementioned factors make it all the more
crucial for the core network components – e.g. server hardware and server-based applications –
to provide inherent, rock solid reliability and ease-of-use. As Exhibit 3 below illustrates, nearly
six out of 10 Stratus ftServer users achieve five nines availability. Of equal note is that none of
the Stratus ftServer users polled in ITIC’s 2011 Global Server Hardware and Server OS
Reliability survey experienced server outages of two, three, four hours or more which qualifies
as the most severe Tier 3 outage.
Exhibit 3. Six out of 10 Stratus ftServer Users Report 99.999% Uptime
Estimate the total amount of annual downtime on the
Stratus ftServer platform due to inherent hardware
problems
NOTE: None -0% - of the respondents
experienced over 3 hours of per server/per
annum downtime on their Stratus ftServers
Copyright © 2011 ITIC All Rights Reserved
Source: ITIC November 2011
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Page 9
Stratus ftServer Continuous Availability
“Uptime all the time,” is Stratus Technologies’ unequivocal mission. Throughout its 30+ year
history, Stratus has dedicated itself to providing customers with continuous availability. Its
ftServer systems are engineered from the ground up to deliver continuous availability for the
most mission-critical applications.
Since Microsoft launched its Trustworthy Computing initiative in January 2002, it too has
concentrated on embedding all of its Windows Server and client software and core server-based
applications like SQL Server with functionality that delivers high levels of uptime.
Organizations that deploy SQL Server on Stratus’ fault tolerant servers can achieve even higher
levels of availability for their database applications.
Customers investing in availability must be able to discern the difference between high
availability and continuous availability.
High availability aims to minimize downtime. For instance, technologies like Windows Failover
Clustering increase availability but there is still some downtime that occurs during the failover
process.
Continuous availability is the ability to withstand hardware failures and other system failures
without experiencing any service interruptions. Stratus ftServer 2600, 4500 and 6310 models
are specifically designed to be able to withstand component and server failure with no loss of
availability.
A 2006 survey and study by The Standish Group on the causes of 50,000 downtime incidences1
analyzed the causes of system unavailability. The results indicated hardware outages accounted
for 12% of all downtime, software failures for 19%, network outages 14%, and operator error
17%. The remainder was due to multiple other causes including environmental issues, planned
downtime and malware.
It is essential that organizations proactively plan to protect themselves against server hardware
and database application failures to minimize downtime and mitigate risk to an acceptable level.
Traditional x86 and x64 servers are not designed for availability. While some have limited
redundant components like power supplies, the vast majority of system components are not
protected. If a hardware failure occurs in the CPU, RAM or DAS the system will fail and all of
the workloads will be rendered inoperable.
The Stratus ftServer Systems are specifically engineered for continuous availability, providing
99.999% uptime by using fault tolerant hardware to defend against data loss by preventing
downtime. The ftServer system requires one copy of Windows Server and runs off-the-shelf
versions of Windows. No application changes are required. Entry-level pricing for ftServer
systems is comparable to similar SQL HA “off the shelf” hardware configurations.
Stratus makes three models of their ftServer Systems: the entry-level 2600, the mid-level 4500
and the enterprise-class 6310. The Stratus ftServer systems fully support running Windows
Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2 including the Hyper-V virtualization role. The
1
Got Downtime? Don’t Blame the Operator, The Standish Group International, Inc.
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Page 10
ftServer system uses a dual-modular-redundancy (DMR) configuration that eliminates any single
point of failure and safeguards data integrity. Orchestrating the server’s ability to provide
continuous availability are two capabilities unique to ftServer systems: the Automated Uptime
Layer and Proactive Availability Monitoring and Management.
The specialized software manages system resources to preemptively protect against downtime
and data loss. The Automated Uptime Layer automatically detects and handles system faults, and
isolates them from the application and other system resources. This is transparent to the end user
and the applications, and servers are unaffected.
Stratus ftServer system’s Proactive Availability Management is a combination of availability
experts and best practices, tightly integrated with the uptime layer software. Stratus availability
technicians monitor the system and Automated Uptime Layer over a secure global network. They
are available 24 x 7 to diagnose and remediate any issue, no matter how complex, worldwide.
Virtually everything a service technician can do on site, Stratus Proactive Availability
Management does remotely. There is no waiting several hours for a repair technician to show up,
hopefully with the right part, to get the business back online. The technology layer will capture
the root cause of problems, and report the information to the uptime experts to make the fix and
avoid a repeat incident.
The automated uptime layer and proactive availability management working in concert also help
to minimize another major cause of downtime – operator error – by eliminating the need for
system interaction or remediation by onsite IT staff.
Another obvious advantage of the Stratus ftServer line is the company’s “Zero-downtime repair”
goal. It ensures that crucial applications like the SQL Server database will continue
uninterrupted. Together, the Automated Uptime Layer and Proactive Availability Management
deliver full protection in real time to keep critical applications on line all the time.
This allows Stratus ftServer systems to deliver automatic “out of the box” uptime that ensures a
near “Six Nines” of availability or less than 32 seconds of downtime annually. The Stratus
ftServer systems are also straightforward, easy-to-deploy and manage. Unlike the rival Oracle
RAC offering which is an additional component and raises the level of complexity, the Stratus
ftServer is a single-system software image. It is also cost effective: it requires only a single copy
and a single license of all software – with one notable exception being Oracle software. Every
model is certified for Microsoft Windows .The ftServer architecture also addresses planned
downtime. Active Upgrade software enables hardware upgrades and maintenance to be
performed online. Software patches and upgrades can be applied to one half of the system while
the other half continues to run the production application, eliminating most planned software
downtime.
To reiterate: even a few minutes of unplanned downtime can wreak untold havoc for
organizations. The financial fallout can range from thousands to millions of dollars. It can
prevent companies from meeting their Service Level Agreements (SLAs), raise the risk of
litigation and cause incalculable damage to the organization’s reputation – resulting in lost
business. In a worst-case scenario an organization may not be able to recover from an outage and
could shut its doors.
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Page 11
SQL Server 2012
Over the past several years, Microsoft’s SQL Server has made steady, across-the-board gains in:
performance, availability, reliability, security and ease-of-use and deployment. SQL Server 2012
(code named “Denali”) will ship in the first half of 2012. It will enable Microsoft to both retain
and expand its installed base of customers, from SMBs to large enterprises.
Microsoft’s over-arching strategy to accomplish this goal is to deliver an optimized and flexible
solution based on the individual organization’s workload and via strong relationships with OEM
hardware partners like Stratus.
This is in stark contrast to Oracle’s “one-size-fits-all” approach.
SQL Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2012 offer customers an impressive array of “out-of-thebox” functionality. Forrester Research, Inc2. in Cambridge, MA highlighted these advantages in
a report reviewing SQL Server 2008, stating, “…SQL Server 2008 already has the strongest
combination of price/performance, manageability, security and DBA productivity.”
The result: an upsurge in new SQL Server customer wins – particularly among large enterprises
that require mission-critical functionality and reliability of at least 99.99% or “four nines” of
uptime, the equivalent of 52.56 minutes of downtime, per database server, per annum.
Companies that need even greater uptime for continuous availability are well served by the
combination of Stratus ftServer products and SQL Server.
By far one of the biggest differentiators between the current SQL Server 2008 R2 edition, as well
as the forthcoming SQL Server 2012 and Oracle Database 11g, are the inherent
features/functions included as part of the core functionality of the baseline product. For
example, a graphical management interface, along with scripting capabilities is fully integrated
into standard Windows management tools. Similarly, SQL Server 2008 R2/SQL Server 2012 and
the various Standard and Enterprise editions also include more robust security features embedded
into the core product such as enterprise-class data encryption, password policy enforcement,
event auditing and granular permissions.
SQL Server Availability Advantages
Both SQL Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2012 offer integrated failover availability features.
These include:

Failover Clustering and Live Migration to help mitigate any disruption of DB services to the
end user; live migration typically occurs in seconds and works with all support guest
operating systems

Database Mirroring: This includes real-time log shipping, database-level protection and
automatic failover with two- to three-second failover responses
2
SQL Server 2008 Ups Pressure on Competitors, Forrester Research Inc., September 2008
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Page 12

Fast Recovery: this guarantees that users will have accelerated access to the failed database
following a restore

SQL Server 2012 will incorporate a new level of “AlwaysOn” capabilities for Availability
Groups and Failover for an entire Group and multiple databases and it will support up to four
Replicas (formerly known as a Mirrors). The Availability Groups incorporate options for
automatic and manual failover.

For organization’s that require more flexible options of availability, SQL Server 2012
Enterprise Edition is engineered to meld separate Clustering, Mirroring and Log Shipping
capabilities into a single feature. It uses the Windows Failover Cluster feature in Windows
Server but doesn’t require any shared storage.

Storage and backup compression

Data mining
The corresponding features in Oracle Database 11g ship as separate products, at an additional
cost. These include:





Oracle Advanced Compression
Oracle OLAP
Oracle Data Mining
Oracle Business Intelligence
Oracle Hyperion
The increased embedded functionality of SQL Server 2008 R2 and the next generation SQL
Server 2012, coupled with the tight integration with Stratus ftServer systems, provides
organizations with lower upfront capital investment and ongoing operational investment costs.
The incremental Oracle costs add up quickly. And Oracle’s licensing T&Cs are far more
complex and expensive than the corresponding line items in Microsoft’s Worldwide Licensing
Plan (WWLP).
In a 16-core online transaction processing (OLTP) server equipped with a four, quad-core Intel
CPUs and outfitted with a failover server, the list price for an Oracle software license costs
approximately $480,000 compared with $99,500 for the comparable Microsoft software license.
Aftermarket support costs are also crucial. Microsoft offers unlimited problem resolution support
as part of its PDW maintenance offering. Oracle charges separately for both Premier Systems
support as well as Premiere Support for Operating systems.
All of the current SQL Server 2008 R2 editions, including the Parallel Data Warehouse (PDW)
edition released in late 2010, score exceptionally well in all crucial criteria: price, performance,
scalability, reliability and security. The beta reviews for the forthcoming SQL Server 2012 RCO
that shipped in November are also excellent. Customers also have high praise for the value and
flexibility of the various SQL Server offerings – which run on industry standard hardware – as
well as the terms and conditions of the Microsoft licensing contracts.
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Page 13
The same cannot be said of Oracle, which is suffering a backlash from users outraged over price
hikes in databases, the proprietary SPARC hardware and technical service and support contracts.
A study by International Data Corp. (IDC) in Framingham, MA found that Microsoft was among
the top three relational database management system (RDBMS) by revenue3. Another4 IDC
report, which analyzed the Worldwide RDBMS market by vendors, noted that, “Microsoft has
been making steady gains in RDBMS, most recently fueled in part by a sales process designed to
target large enterprises and sell database technology at a strategic level.”
These gains are no fluke. ITIC’s5 own survey data confirms that Windows Server 2008 R2 and
SQL Server 2008 R2 have both achieved tangible, across-the-board improvements in
performance, scalability, security, management and ease of use, and they are either number one
or two in each of those crucial categories.
Oracle has long been the entrenched market leader in high-end enterprises. There are indications
-- via independent government and market research studies and customer surveys -- that Oracle’s
perceived technology and business advantages are waning. The market momentum is shifting in
SQL Server’s favor.
Potential Impact of Virtualization and Cloud on Availability
The advances in server, desktop, Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI), application, storage and
network virtualization technology, as well as emerging technologies like public, private and
hybrid clouds, come with caveats. The increasing use of virtualization and clustering
technologies and new cloud deployments make it imperative that organizations ensure the
availability of their systems.
A virtualized environment with several applications housed in the same physical server heightens
the risk for greater collateral damage in the event of an outage. In essence, downtime could
double, triple or quadruple. Clustering capabilities improve performance but the trade off is
added management complexity, higher cost and the potential of increasing risk and exposure in
the event of a failure. Similarly, organizations that opt for cloud deployments – particularly
hybrid and public clouds – may experience tardy response times, inconsistent or poor Quality of
Service (QoS), weak SLAs and latency issues when a performance glitch occurs. Additionally,
customers who deploy public and hybrid clouds may have little or no control over how and when
their cloud providers will address their issues. It could be hours or days before the cloud provider
commences remediation efforts.
3
Worldwide Embedded DBMS 2010 – 2014 Forecast and 2009 Vendor Shares, September
2010
4
Worldwide RDBMS Vendor Analysis: Top 10 Vendor License Revenue by Operating
Environment, March 2011
5
ITIC 2011 Global Server Hardware and Server OS Reliability Survey, April 2011; October
2011
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Once again, the inherent features and functions in the Stratus ftServer systems and SQL Server
2008 R2 and upcoming SQL Server 2012 DBs proactively prevent downtime. Stratus ftServers
do this via the embedded redundancy of the underlying hardware and via the aforementioned
Uptime Assurance process, which keeps mission critical servers and server based applications
like SQL Server DB online and available. SQL Server’s AlwaysOn capabilities likewise mitigate
downtime and ensure fast recovery in a few seconds following an outage.
The ITIC 2011 Database Reliability and Deployment Trends Survey, which polled 450
organizations worldwide in October 2011 as shown in Exhibit 4, found that customers rated the
reliability of SQL Server on par with the other major DB platforms including Oracle 11g DB.
Exhibit 4. SQL Server Reliability Ramps Up
Rate the Uptime/Reliability of your Databases (Select
ALL that apply)
Copyright © 2011 ITIC All Rights Reserved
Source: ITIC December 2011
The joint ITIC and Stratus reliability survey data in Exhibit 5 likewise indicates that 59% of
Stratus ftServer customers experience only 1 to 5 minutes of per server/per annum downtime
compared to 42% of Oracle SPARC survey participants who reported 1 to 5 minutes of
unplanned per server annual downtime.
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Exhibit 5. Ninety Percent of Stratus ftServer Users Experience <10 minutes
of Server Downtime
Estimate the total amount of annual downtime on each
server platform due to inherent hardware problems
5%
Stratus ftServer
8%
20%
59%
11%
Oracle SPARC
31 to 60 minutes
11 to 30 minutes
6 to 10 minutes
1 to 5 minutes
19%
15%
42%
Copyright © 2011 ITIC All Rights Reserved
Source: ITIC November 2011
Since 2002, Microsoft’s SQL Server has been the most secure of the major database platforms.
From January 2008 through November 2011, Microsoft’s SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2
recorded just 22 security vulnerabilities, according to the National Institute of Standards and
Technology (NIST). This is the least of any major database platform. By contrast, NIST recorded
nearly eight times as many security flaws for Oracle’s 11g database server -- 156 vulnerabilities
during the same three and a half-year time span (Exhibit 6).
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Exhibit 6. NIST Statistics Show SQL Server Records the Least Number of
Reported Security Vulnerabilities
NIST Statistics Show SQL Server Records the Least Number of
Reported Security Vulnerabilities vs. Oracle Database Server
69
SQL Server
Oracle
53
55
53
Oracle 11g has recorded nearly 8x as
many vulnerabilities as SQL Server
2008 since January 2008 to present
24
34
25
21
20
19
11
7
3
2002
2003
Source: NIST 2011
1
0
0
2004
2005
2006
8
2
2007
0
2008
2009
2010
2
2011
Statistics as of the end of November 2011
Source: ITIC 2010, All Rights Reserved
Source: NIST 2011
Since 2002, the NIST Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) recorded over 350 security
vulnerabilities associated with the Oracle database platform, the highest total of any major
vendor. Oracle had almost eight times as many reported security flaws as SQL Server during the
same time span. And not only has Oracle had many more reported vulnerabilities than SQL
Server, the patching processes for Oracle databases are quite complicated – so much so that
anecdotal data obtained from a large number of Oracle DBAs, indicates they do not patch their
Oracle databases.
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Stratus ftServer/SQL Server vs. Oracle SPARC, x86 and
Oracle DB
Organizations contemplating a new server hardware and/or database purchasing decisions or
switches must also consider how the vendor is trending in key performance metrics. These
include: the strength of the vendor’s uptime and reliability, integration and interoperability,
technical service, support and documentation, manageability, security and the overall acquisition
and maintenance costs.
Stratus ftServers have consistently maintained their status as among the most reliable/available
and easily managed servers. To reiterate, SQL Server has made tangible, across-the-board
improvements in performance, reliability, management and security in the past several years.
Oracle Customer Dissatisfaction
Not so with Oracle. Independent surveys have found that Oracle customer loyalty is waning. The
user backlash is reflected in Oracle’s most recent fiscal quarterly results, which missed Wall
Street’s expectations. For its 2012 second fiscal quarter, Oracle posted net income of $2.2 billion
on sales of $8.8 billion. Oracle’s earnings rose by 22% over the prior fiscal quarter while sales
increased by 2% percent. However the big story was the 7.4% decline in Oracle’s hardware sales
from the previous quarter and a contraction of 14% year-over-year on sales of $953 million.
Sales of Oracle’s core competency software products including the Oracle DB, the Fusion suite
of applications and the Solaris operating system were also soft in the Q2 2012 fiscal quarter.
New software license sales – a staple of Oracle’s bread and butter sales -- grew a paltry 2%
instead of the double digits Wall Street had anticipated while revenue from software license
updates (which boast profit margins of over 90%) rose 9% to $4 billion.
Oracle customers' opinion of their technology provider, never high to begin with, has worsened
in the past two years, according to recent surveys.
A Gabriel Consulting Group Inc. April 2011 survey of 450 enterprises -- 94% of whom are
Oracle customers – found that customer opinions of Oracle are worsening. When asked whether
any of Oracle’s recent actions have changed their opinion of the company, 65% said it had
changed for the worse. Even more damning: some of the survey respondents who answered “not
sure” or “not a negative change” used the comment box of the question to write that their opinion
of Oracle hadn’t changed because it was already negative!
Various news reports have also chronicled customer dissatisfaction with Oracle pricing and
policies over the last two years. Customer ire is particularly directed at SPARC server price
hikes. Users have also voiced disapproval of Oracle’s changes to the former Sun Microsystems
service, support and maintenance contracts; lack of a specific product roadmap with definitive
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Page 18
release dates for new versions of the Open Source MySQL database and SPARC servers and the
decision to drop support for the older Intel Itanium chip.
A May 2010 TechTarget article noted that customers “…dislike the new pricier and less flexible
Sun hardware support policy6 under Oracle…”
A June 2010 article in the online TechTarget news site said despite aggressive moves by Oracle
to discount the price of its high-end Exadata database – in some cases by as much as 70% or
more – the response has been less than stellar. “The highest discounts seemed to target the
company’s largest and most important “referenceable” customers, many of which were not
happy with how Oracle adapted pricing on its year-old Sun Microsystems hardware franchise.7”
Most if not all of the changes, raise users’ upfront acquisition and ongoing maintenance costs.
Oracle now requires customers to purchase support on each piece of hardware. Additionally, any
organization that lets their support contracts lapse will pay a premium equal to 150% of their
most recent support contract to get in compliance. Another change that has riled customers is
that support contracts begin from the time Oracle or its manufacturing partners ship the products.
Prior to this, support contracts for many customers, particularly the large enterprises, only went
into effect when the server was deployed. Now customers pay even if the unit sits dormant.
6
7
Oracle Support Hikes Irk Sun Shops, TechTarget May 6, 2010
Sun hardware shops happy? Not so, fast Oracle! TechTarget June 28, 2010
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Conclusions & Recommendations
Stratus ftServer and Microsoft SQL Server can help organizations achieve five and six Nines –
99.999% and 99.9999% -- of continuous availability. Five nines is the equivalent of 5.25 minutes
of unplanned per server/per database downtime, while six nines delivers continuous availability
of just 32 seconds of unplanned per server or per database annual downtime.
The former uptime industry standard of three nines (8.76 hours of per server/per DB per annum
downtime) is inadequate for 21st century networks that include virtualization and cloud
deployments. End users – an increasing number of whom are remote and mobile – require 24x7
uninterrupted access to network services and data.
The ability to maximize uptime and proactively prevent downtime is one of the most crucial
issues for IT departments and database administrators; all of the joint Stratus and ITIC surveys
conducted from 2009 onward corroborate that.
Both Stratus ftServer and Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 and the forthcoming SQL Server 2012
“Denali” provide customers with myriad high availability – and in Stratus’ case, continuous
availability –that ensures servers and databases remain up and running.
Stratus ftServer systems running Microsoft SQL Server databases provide customers with the
highest industry-wide Uptime Assurance. The combination of Stratus ftServer and Microsoft
SQL Server also offers customers a very aggressive price/performance ratio that is less than onethird to one-half the price of competing high availability Oracle DB and Oracle RAC solutions.
The Stratus ftServers and Microsoft SQL Server also deliver ease of use; excellent technical
service and support. Additionally, corporate customers can draw confidence from the enduring
decade-long partnership between Microsoft and Stratus.
Firms that do not track the number and severity of their outages have no way of gauging the
financial and data losses to the business. Even a cursory comparison indicates the cost disparities
between 99% uptime and 99.99% high availability. For example, a small or midsize business
that estimates the hourly cost of downtime to be a very conservative $10,000 per hour, would
incur losses of $876,000 per year at a data center with 99% application availability (87 hours of
downtime). In contrast, a company whose data center operates at 99.99% uptime loses $87,600
annually – one-tenth of a firm with conventional 99% availability.
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Technology and business trends increase the need for high availability and heighten the threat of
downtime. The rise of Web-based applications and new technologies like virtualization and
Service Oriented Architecture (SOA), as well as the emergence of public or shared cloud
computing models, are designed to maximize productivity. But without the proper safeguards
these new datacenter paradigms may raise the risk of downtime. The Association for Computer
Operations Management/ Data Center Institute (AFCOM) forecasts that one-in-four data centers
will experience a serious business disruption over the next five years. Leonard Eckhaus,
AFCOM’s founder and past president says “the threat is worsening due to the economic
downturn which has caused IT departments to slash budgets.” AFCOM’s predictions are based
on its recent survey of 300 corporations; its findings are consistent with those of ITIC/Stratus
surveys from 2009 through November 2011.
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References/Further Reading
Stratus Technologies References
http://www.stratus.com/Partners/StrategicPartners/Microsoft.aspx
Stratus Technologies Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport Continuous Availability Case
Study http://www.stratus.com/~/media/Stratus/Files/Library/CaseStudies/Hartsfield-JacksonIntll-Airport-Atlanta.pdf
Stratus Technologies Strategic Payment Services Case Study
http://www.stratus.com/~/media/Stratus/Files/Library/CaseStudies/Strategic-PaymentsServices.pdf
Stratus Technologies South Carolina Federal Credit Union Case Study
http://www.stratus.com/~/media/Stratus/Files/Library/CaseStudies/SC_Federal_CU.pdf
Microsoft SQL Server References
Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Denali http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/en/us/default.aspx
Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Denali This page provides links to various White Papers detailing
the new features/functions in Windows Server 2012 including Security; Total Cost of
Administration; Comparative Studies Comparing the Cost of SQL Server vs. Oracle Database
and TPC-E Performance benchmarks
http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/en/us/product-info/why-sql-server.aspx
Microsoft Oracle compete Website: http://www.riseabovetoday.com/
Microsoft SQL Server 2012 RCO Download
www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=28145
Microsoft SQL Server/Stratus Case Study on Six Nines of Availability
http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Microsoft-SQL-Server-2008-R2-Enterprise/StratusTechnologies/Protect-your-mission-critical-databases-from-downtime-and-data-loss-with-sixnines-uptime-availability/4000007136
SQL Server 2012 About.com Guide http://newtech.about.com/od/databasemanagement/a/SqlServer-2011-Denali.htm
SQL Server Magazine www.sqlmag.com
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Appendices
Microsoft’s SQL Server has been the most secure database platform, recording the fewest
number of security flaws of any of the major DBs from January 2003 through November 2011.
Below is a detailed list and links to the flaws and security vulnerabilities of each major database
platform as logged and reported in the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s
Common Vulnerabilities and Exposure (NIST CVE). All database security vulnerability statistics
ITIC analysts cited in this report are directly sourced from the NIST CVE. Statistics on database
security vulnerabilities referenced in Exhibit 1 are current through November, 2011.
According to the NIST CVE Microsoft’s SQL Server 2008 R2 recorded only one vulnerability of
medium severity from January through June 2011. By contrast, Oracle 11g has notched 14 CVE
vulnerabilities for the same six month period beginning January 1 through June 23, 2011.
And during the three year period commencing July 15, 2008 through November 2011,
Microsoft’s SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 R2, recorded only two security
vulnerabilities of “Medium” severity in the NIST CVE database.
By contrast during that same three year period the NIST VVE database recorded 38
vulnerabilities (10 of which the NIST CVE classified as “High” severity) associated with the
Oracle Database Server 11g from July 15, 2008 through June 23, 2011.
Microsoft
Report Site: http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/search-advanced?cid=2
Parameters: Vulnerability Criteria: Software Flaws
CPE Name, Vendor: Microsoft Corporation
CPE Name, Product: sql_server, sql_server, sql_server_desktop_engine,
sql_server_express_edition, sql_server_reporting services, sql_srvsql_srv_desktop_engine
Published Date Range: Start Date: January [Year], End Date: December [Year]
Last Modified Date Range: Unspecified (no entry)
Oracle
Report Site: http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/search-advanced?cid=2
Parameters: Vulnerability Criteria: Software Flaws
CPE Name, Vendor: Oracle
CPE Name, Product: Any [Evaluate each CVE individually to determine if the “Vulnerable
software and versions” section lists a configuration containing database product(s)]
Published Date Range: Start Date: January [Year], End Date: December [Year]
Last Modified Date Range: Unspecified (no entry)
IBM DB2
Report Site: http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/search-advanced?cid=2
Parameters: Vulnerability Criteria: Software Flaws
CPE Name, Vendor: IBM
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CPE Name, Product: db2, db2_content_manager, db2_content_manager_toolkit, db2_server,
db2_universal_database
Published Date Range: Start Date: January [Year], End Date: December [Year]
Last Modified Date Range: Unspecified (no entry)
MySQL
Report Site: http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/search-advanced?cid=2
Parameters: Vulnerability Criteria: Software Flaws
CPE Name, Vendor: mysql, mysql-ocaml, mysql_auction, mysql_eventum, mysql_quick_admin,
mysqldumper, mysqlnewsengine
CPE Name, Product: Any
Published Date Range: Start Date: January [Year], End Date: December [Year]
Last Modified Date Range: Unspecified (no entry)
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Methodology
This White Paper uses a variety of independent data from third parties to validate the
comparative price, performance and availability of Microsoft SQL Server running on Stratus
Fault Tolerant ftServers versus Oracle DB and Oracle RAC solutions.
ITIC and Stratus technologies in Maynard, MA partnered to construct a blind survey of 300+ IT
professionals focused on the uptime and reliability of the major server hardware and database
platforms. The Web-based survey consisted of multiple choice and essay questions. ITIC
analysts also conducted two dozen first person customer interviews to obtain detailed anecdotal
data to validate the Web responses.
ITIC also conducted three separate, independent Web-based surveys on Server Hardware and
Server OS Reliability in 2009, 2010 and 2011. The most recent survey was the ITIC 2011
Global Server Hardware and Server OS Reliability survey. Conducted in October through
December 2011, this Web based survey polled over 400 C-level executives and IT
administrators in the reliability and security of 18 different Server Operating Systems and over
one dozen Server hardware platforms. Microsoft had no influence or input into the survey
responses, nor did it sponsor any of the surveys. None of the respondents received any
remuneration for their participation in this survey. An 85% majority of respondents hailed from
North America; 15% were global. To supplement the Web surveys and obtain anecdotal data,
ITIC conducted first-person interviews with one dozen Stratus ftServer and Microsoft SQL
Server corporate customers in a variety of vertical industries.
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