Remove risk and maximise value for your Oracle ULA

Summary

In the vast and complicated world of Oracle licensing, you may have heard or even have an Oracle Unlimited Licence Agreement. However, not many people fully understand how these license agreements work and often we see businesses using ULAs who either do not know how to get the most from them or worse end up with a serious compliance risk at the end. It's not unusual to find customers with a bigger licence risk bill post-ULA than the value of the whole ULA contract.

Overview of ULA

The ULA allows you to use an unlimited quantity for a set of products for a specific time. At the end of the specified period, you declare your amount of usage which becomes your perpetual license count for that product – you end up with the same type of license as you would if you had purchased ‘normal’ perpetual licenses. The general structure is like this:

• Pay to enter the ULA; a fixed amount spread over the length of the contract, normally three years (Average is $3m but can be upwards of $20m)

• For the products that are unlimited, you use as much of those products as you like

• At the end of the agreement, you declare your usage of the products, showing Oracle where they are installed, and the required licence counts.

• Oracle then grant that number of perpetual licences.

This type of licensing is different from other Enterprise License Agreements, and typically Oracle ULAs only apply to Oracle technology products (not applications).

Key risks with a Oracle ULA

In ability to track database installations

At the end of the agreement, you must complete the Oracle Certification process and show Oracle where every database instance is installed. For every database you don’t declare you lose out, twice.

Once because you do not get to claim the value of the licences you would have during the certification process.

Twice because the instance is now out of compliance and you owe Oracle for the licences to cover it.

Oracle will not allow you to add instances to your certification list under any circumstances; you have one chance to get this right.

Options and management packs are not unlimited

Whilst the database licences are unlimited, the options and management packs are normally a fixed amount, and that is normally small.

Many people in the company who are not close to the deal hear “Unlimited” and take that as approval to do what they like with it, using every option and pack they can.

When companies get to the certification stage at the end of the agreement, they suddenly realise they have millions of dollars of risk in the options and management pack estate, or worse they don’t and Oracle inform them.

Not being able to track database installations requests and approve options and pack usage can easily lead to noncompliance, at a very high cost.

Analysis

The best way to avoid these risks to ensure you have a robust request process to ensure you know where every database is, and what options and packs are approved for it. Astute LDM exists for just this purpose.

How Astute LDM is used PRE ULA

Astute LDM has a powerful module named Insight, which helps to capture all the demand for Oracle, this will help you validate if a ULA purchase is warranted.

You can also look at other software such as Microsoft SQL requests and influence software choice to maximise the value from your ULA.

Knowing how much you need in the future will give you a much better point to negotiate from with Oracle.

How Astute LDM is used during a ULA

Any software deployed in a ULA not declared at the end, is a noncompliance risk post ULA. Having a process to control deployments during the length of the contract ensures you won't face this issue.

Astute ensures products not in ULA (options and packs) are still purchased in the correct manner, again avoiding risk.

How Astute LDM is used Post ULA

If you have used your ULA right, you will have a licence pool of licences to manage. When decommissions happen your spare licence count will increase.

Using Astute LDM you will be able to predict when these licences will run out; this gives you a choice to buy new licences or start mitigation activities early.

Using Astute LDM to control the estate will go along way to squashing the likelihood of audits as you can demonstrate complete control.

Arrange a demo today!