Oracle licensing is difficult to grasp. The general consensus is that your company may end up paying too much for Oracle products. Even so, due to the complexities of the rules, it is frequently unclear whether you are in compliance. Given the current economic situation, many businesses are looking for ways to cut costs on Oracle licensing and support. Hiring an Oracle licensing expert to help you through the process would be an excellent hack.
Oracle’s agreements include language that is inclusive. Typically, the agreements allow Oracle to raise the fees for Software Update License and Support (SULS) by up to 4% per year. The corporation’s older and current agreements contain similar language. Previously, Oracle raised the SULS fee by 3% per year, but prices have recently risen, and the current fee is 4% per year.
Increasing prices for Oracle’s products can cost organizations a lot of money, and they may end up paying more than the listed price. Oracle licensing specialists can identify and eliminate any extraneous costs. They can assist you in devising a strategy to eliminate or at least reduce the extra costs. You can also decide whether it is better to keep the same licensing or get a new one entirely.
Oracle Feature Usage Validation
Oracle will typically provide you with a variety of options and feature combinations that can be used with the software. You can have them activated immediately or later when it’s time for an upgrade. If the feature is enabled, the license is usually not required. However, the issue arises if you later decide to use the enabled feature. The system does not warn you that you need a license, whether it is for regular use or by accident.
It is critical to have your feature usage validated on a regular basis. The information provided by Redress Compliance experts aids in the prevention of compliance gaps during Oracle audits caused by the inadvertent use of features such as Partitioning, Advanced Compression, and security. The process can also be reverse engineered to identify features that are not currently in use but are licensed. It can assist you in identifying any features that are not currently being used or were not required in the first place. You will benefit from lower costs after having them removed.
Experts Can Help You Decide between Oracle Standard and Enterprise Edition
Choosing between the two editions can be difficult, and most organizations will go with Oracle Enterprise Edition. It could be due to a specific application requirement or simply because Oracle proposed the Enterprise Edition in the agreement. Because many applications are compatible with the standard edition, an expert can advise you on whether investing in Enterprise Edition is worthwhile.
The Oracle SE2 processor license is currently priced at $17,500. In comparison, the Oracle Enterprise Edition license costs a hefty $47,500. Experts can examine the workload and recommend purchasing an edition that meets your requirements. Furthermore, they can determine whether it is beneficial to downgrade from Enterprise to Standard edition to reduce the annual cost.
Look into Alternatives
Oracle is not suitable for every business. Whatever the reason, an expert can investigate alternatives and present viable options for your company. Some organizations are migrating from Oracle Enterprise Edition on C2 to AWS’ Aurora PostgreSQL. They claim to have saved up to 70%. In addition, the service includes maintenance alert/monitoring, database software patching, and operating system patching.
An expert may also recommend combining Oracle and an alternative. Some operations can be performed on Oracle, while the remainder of the workload is transferred to the alternative platform. Each platform can be optimized based on the workload, potentially increasing productivity.
If your company is currently using Oracle Enterprise Edition, you can downgrade to Standard Edition after dividing the workload and saving money. The majority of Oracle applications are compatible with market alternatives.
If your company currently uses Oracle, you could save a lot of money. While hiring an expert may appear counterproductive because they will also charge you a fee for the operations, their observations and suggestions, if implemented, can help you save millions of dollars each year. Regular license management can assist you in identifying and eliminating cost-increasing factors.