well that depends what your application needs.

To cut the cost, you need to evaluate if your application(s) support Oracle Standard Edition which is very cheaper compared to Enterprise Edition which comes with many options like partitioning, RAC, etc...

If your backup strategy is only to disk then you can use RMAN which is recommended backup solution by Oracle (no additional cost required to use RMAN).

If you have few databases in your shop then you can evaluate EM DC to administer them. You can do every part of administration with EM DC including email notifications for any threshold violations (no additional cost required to use RMAN).

Thanks,