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INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

INTELLIGENCE CONSULTING

Stratus ftServer and SQL Server Deliver Continuous Availability

January 2012

© Copyright 2012 Information Technology Intelligence Consulting (ITIC). All rights reserved.


Page 2

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



Page 3

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).



Page 4

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.



Page 5

Exhibit 1. Eight out of 10 Stratus ftServer Users Rarely Experience Downtime

Copyright © 2011 ITIC All Rights Reserved

How often do you experience server hardware failures

on each server platform? (Select ALL that apply)

13%

20%

13%

22%

10%

19%

23%

27%

9%

72%

60%

73%

64%

77%

64%

56%

52%

83%

Dell Power Edge

HP ProLiant

HP Integrity

IBM System x

IBM Power Systems

Intel White Box

Oracle SPARC

Oracle x86

Stratus ftServer

Rarely

Several times a year

NOTE: None – 0% - of respondents

said they “Never” experienced server

hardware failures

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.



Page 6

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.



Page 7

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%

9%

34%

31%

20%

3%Less than 99%

99% (87.66 hours of unplanned annual downtime)

99.9% (8.76 hours of unplanned annual downtime)

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)




Page 8

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 Downtime per Year

99.0% 87.6 hours

99.9% 8.76 hours

99.99% 52.5 minutes

99.999% 5.25 minutes

99.9999% 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.



Page 9

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




Page 10

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.

http://standishgroup.com/quarterly_reports/pdf_copy/q1_2006_sample.pdf



Page 11

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.



Page 12

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-the-

box” 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



Page 13

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.



Page 14

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. Another

4 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



Page 15

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)

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.



Page 16

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

42%

59%

15%

20%

19%

8%

11%

5%

Oracle SPARC

Stratus ftServer

31 to 60 minutes

11 to 30 minutes

6 to 10 minutes

1 to 5 minutes


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).



Page 17

Exhibit 6. NIST Statistics Show SQL Server Records the Least Number of Reported Security Vulnerabilities

Source: ITIC 2010, All Rights Reserved

NIST Statistics Show SQL Server Records the Least Number of

Reported Security Vulnerabilities vs. Oracle Database Server

24

31 0 0

2

118

02

21

7

20

25

69

53 5355

34

19

2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

SQL Server

Oracle

Statistics as of the end of November 2011Source: NIST 2011

Oracle 11g has recorded nearly 8x as many vulnerabilities as SQL Server 2008 since January 2008 to present

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.



Page 18

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

http://searchoracle.techtarget.com/news/2240035791/Independent-Oracle-survey-says-Loyalty-might-be-waning?vgnextfmt=print



Page 19

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 Oracle Support Hikes Irk Sun Shops, TechTarget May 6, 2010 7 Sun hardware shops happy? Not so, fast Oracle! TechTarget June 28, 2010

http://searchdatacenter.techtarget.com/news/article/0,289142,sid80_gci1511655,00.html

http://searchdatacenter.techtarget.com/news/1515821/Sun-hardware-shops-happy-Not-so-fast-Oracle



Page 20

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 one-

third 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.



Page 21

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.



Page 22

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-Jackson-

Intll-Airport-Atlanta.pdf

Stratus Technologies Strategic Payment Services Case Study

http://www.stratus.com/~/media/Stratus/Files/Library/CaseStudies/Strategic-Payments-

Services.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/Stratus-

Technologies/Protect-your-mission-critical-databases-from-downtime-and-data-loss-with-six-

nines-uptime-availability/4000007136

SQL Server 2012 About.com Guide http://newtech.about.com/od/databasemanagement/a/Sql-

Server-2011-Denali.htm

SQL Server Magazine www.sqlmag.com

http://www.stratus.com/Partners/StrategicPartners/Microsoft.aspx

http://www.stratus.com/~/media/Stratus/Files/Library/CaseStudies/Hartsfield-Jackson-Intll-Airport-Atlanta.pdf

http://www.stratus.com/~/media/Stratus/Files/Library/CaseStudies/Hartsfield-Jackson-Intll-Airport-Atlanta.pdf

http://www.stratus.com/~/media/Stratus/Files/Library/CaseStudies/Strategic-Payments-Services.pdf

http://www.stratus.com/~/media/Stratus/Files/Library/CaseStudies/Strategic-Payments-Services.pdf

http://www.stratus.com/~/media/Stratus/Files/Library/CaseStudies/SC_Federal_CU.pdf

http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/en/us/default.aspx

http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/en/us/product-info/why-sql-server.aspx

http://www.riseabovetoday.com/

http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?id=28145

http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Microsoft-SQL-Server-2008-R2-Enterprise/Stratus-Technologies/Protect-your-mission-critical-databases-from-downtime-and-data-loss-with-six-nines-uptime-availability/4000007136



http://newtech.about.com/od/databasemanagement/a/Sql-Server-2011-Denali.htm

http://newtech.about.com/od/databasemanagement/a/Sql-Server-2011-Denali.htm

http://www.sqlmag.com/



Page 23

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


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)]



IBM DB2 Report Site: http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/search-advanced?cid=2


CPE Name, Vendor: IBM

http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/search-results?query=SQL+Server+2008+R2&search_type=last3years&cves=on

http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/search-results?query=Oracle+Database+Server&search_type=last3years&cves=on

http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/search-advanced?cid=2





Page 24

CPE Name, Product: db2, db2_content_manager, db2_content_manager_toolkit, db2_server,

db2_universal_database



MySQL Report Site: http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/search-advanced?cid=2


CPE Name, Vendor: mysql, mysql-ocaml, mysql_auction, mysql_eventum, mysql_quick_admin,

mysqldumper, mysqlnewsengine

CPE Name, Product: Any






Page 25

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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