MySQL was a viable option for us -- in fact, it beat Oracle in just about every benchmark we could dream of. Sure, it didn't have referential integrity, but we didn't need it.
Also, we were using Apache with a few scripts, no need for vignette or any other weird stuff.
Things are getting cheaper, but they were always reasonably cheap if you knew what you were doing, AND didn't try to follow buzzwords or have full ACID properties for your instant messaging status updates.
MySQL was a viable option for us -- in fact, it beat Oracle in just about every benchmark we could dream of. Sure, it didn't have referential integrity, but we didn't need it.
Also, we were using Apache with a few scripts, no need for vignette or any other weird stuff.
Things are getting cheaper, but they were always reasonably cheap if you knew what you were doing, AND didn't try to follow buzzwords or have full ACID properties for your instant messaging status updates.