TCO (Total Cost Ownership) is the buzzword in today’s business world. This metric helps business managers assess the direct and indirect costs and benefits of their investment in IT components and services. A vital component of the overall TCO is database management. All information-centric applications need databases for data storage. In addition, the storage demands of small and medium-sized businesses are growing rapidly as more emphasis is placed on data backup and long-term archiving than disaster recovery.

Embedded databases have come into this scenario as an important cost reduction tool. They help organizations manage growing storage requirements by providing a cost-effective and reliable solution for data backup, file storage and archiving, ensuring a lower cost of ownership for small and medium-sized businesses.

The remainder of this article will focus on the database server I am most familiar with Daffodil DB and how it helps reduce TCO. Although the example has some nuances specific to Daffodil DB, I’m sure readers will be able to extrapolate from the topic to better understand the role of a database in reducing TCO.

Let’s start with development and implementation costs. Gone are the days when applications had to be extensively tested for all underlying platforms. Now, you can reduce the cost and time required to develop and configure solutions across multiple platforms by using a Java database. A separate implementation for different platform implementations of a large application is a major expense that a business can do without.

Administration costs are a major concern for many businesses. Logically, database administration costs are a significant component of TCO. When integrated with an application, a compact Java database can become virtually invisible to the user, since it (the database) requires no administration and runs on the same Java Virtual Machine (JVM) as the application. Its simple performance tuning process helps optimize database performance and greatly reduces database administration costs.

Now let’s move on to the compatibility cost. Java databases, being platform independent, are compatible with all operating systems and application servers. This feature helps developers choose their own range of cost-effective solutions. For example, with Daffodil DB, the developer can use open source tools like JBOSS application server to lower the overall TCO.

Last but certainly not least, let’s move on to the license costs. Forgive me if I seem to evangelize Daffodil DB, but that is one area where I can ‘preach’ with confidence. Since Daffodil DB can be used/integrated with a wide range of applications, flexible license policies have been developed to suit the diverse needs of the development community without restricting the same to a single standard license. Each application development organization can choose the right combination of licenses that best suits their needs. Organizations can also purchase additional licenses or upgrade their licenses. Do I hear someone yell ‘What about open source?’

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