from Hacker News

NASA overspent $15M on Oracle software bc it was afraid an audit could cost more

by sumthinprofound on 1/13/23, 2:37 AM with 11 comments

• by grugagag on 1/13/23, 4:59 AM

  Oracle has zero customers but plenty of hostages

• by tengbretson on 1/13/23, 5:48 AM

  > The auditor estimates NASA "could have saved approximately $35 million over the past five years in fines and overpayments ($20 million in penalties plus $15 million in Oracle overspend)" and is therefore questioning the costs.

  $35 million, damn that's nearly 0.03% of their budget over the past 5 years.

• by tluyben2 on 1/13/23, 5:37 AM

  This seems to be normal in a lot of companies that pay for Oracle products; they use clauses in their contracts and licenses to trigger audits or you can just pay up. Many (most?) pay up because it is easier.

• by entropicgravity on 1/13/23, 4:09 AM

  Time to evaluate Postgresql.

• by josh_fyi on 1/13/23, 7:40 AM

  Why does any company nowadays start using Oracle?