External tables and BFILEs are not included in the 4GB limit. In fact like the SimpleDB index to SQLite idea, I’ve also been thinking about using Oracle XE as a meta data and dimensional data store pointing to SQLite fact tables/cubes.

Tom

I think your idea for SimpleDB indexes with SQLite backends better though.

If you believe Oracle scales better, is more robust, has more features… the fractional hour cost of even a CPU/Core Oracle EE license with extra options is not that bad when it is spent over a year’s worth of hours. It is not 10c per hour (more like $1.48 per core per hr for 24×7x365). So to make money on a service which uses it comes down to how you slice up your one massive or 2-3 smaller instances per machine, similar in the end to WebHosting economics.

The main stuff I have tested requires a network that EC2 is not delivering yet. If I could launch a cluster of machines in a specific location which gave me low latency, high speed interconnects I could run MySQL cluster, JGroups, Oracle RAC 2-4 node clusters with replication to other remote sites for redundancy, DR and/or reporting.

Have Fun
Paul

lol! I like that last comment about the names. I started a little thread oh that not too long ago… Got some funny responses.

http://forums.oracle.com/forums/thread.jspa?messageID=2464645&#2464645

I look forward to seeing where all this leads down the road.

Regards,
Dan

here
http://forums.oracle.com/forums/thread.jspa?threadID=650092&tstart=0

or here
https://mix.oracle.com/ideas/26634-offer-a-saas-cloud-computing-version-of-oracle-application-express