Oracle isn't selling databases. They're selling database support. Similar to how IBM operates - they make good stuff, but you're really not paying for the hardware. If you were, they'd be outrageously expensive compared to something built more simply - see Backblaze, for an example: http://blog.backblaze.com/2009/09/01/petabytes-on-a-budget-h... .
Oracle isn't selling databases. They're selling database support. Similar to how IBM operates - they make good stuff, but you're really not paying for the hardware. If you were, they'd be outrageously expensive compared to something built more simply - see Backblaze, for an example: http://blog.backblaze.com/2009/09/01/petabytes-on-a-budget-h... .