How to master your Oracle Unlimited License Agreement ( ULA )

To exit your Oracle ULA and complete Oracle ULA certification process, you will need 3 months minimum or preparation, that is to make sure you are:

1. Compliant with your Oracle ULA (every company I help have deployed non ULA software)
2. Maximize your current Oracle ULA contract

Look at this chart to see the benefits and risks by waiting for your Oracle ULA. The earlier you begin the better results can you expect, such as:

• Less money paid to Oracle for license shortfalls
• Maximize current agreement & optimize licensing. (You want to certify your Oracle ULA with as many licenses as possible)
• Better pricing and a stronger contract protecting you against future non-compliance.

I have now been helping companies manage their Oracle Unlimited License Agreements (Oracle ULA) for 10 years. Along with license audits, Oracle ULA is one of the most common reasons why companies hire Oracle license experts.

The first clients I helped with Oracle ULA was mostly ad-hoc as we didn't know about all the pitfalls that comes with Oracle ULA. But as with all consulting, the more times you do something, the better you become, and you minimize the mistakes and maximize the success.

This roadmap is currently our methodology on a high level. I am sharing it so that you can take/use whatever you need to better prepare for your Oracle ULA certification. But also help you understand why you need to take some of these steps.

The project goals we want to achieve are:

1. Have zero noncompliance at the end of your Oracle ULA
2. Provide best possible advice on what you have deployed to enable you to:
3. Understand which products you potentially want to include in a new Oracle ULA.
4. Stronger negotiation position when the Oracle ULA renewal date is up. (It's good to able to say "No" to Oracle offer if the price is not good enough! But it can be a difficult thing to do if you are uncertain about your compliance position.

No matter your "Certification/Exit" process text.

Oracle will want to count your licensing and want you to run their data measurement tools on your Oracle environment.

If you run their data measurement tools and hand them the raw output:

If you do that, it may cost your company millions of ￡/$/€

I haven’t come across a single company that have been compliant with their Oracle ULA, no matter what SAM tool they are using. And most are using some tool.

Checklist for reviewing the Oracle ULA contract

Read this blog to create your ULA exit strategy

Customer definition

Which legal entities are using software from the Oracle Unlimited License Agreement? There is almost always a subsidiary list of who can access the software.

Action: Ask business/IT, if your corporation have acquired any legal entities during the Oracle ULA that are now using the Oracle software. If the answer is yes, most Oracle ULAs you a contractual right to add them to the Oracle ULA if the acquired entity is less than 10% of your company in employees or revenue. Make sure you follow the process for doing so.

Territory

You will only have the right to physically deploy Oracle software in the specified countries or territory. We either see you have 1 or several countries, the best Oracle ULAs have worldwide usage territory.

Recommendation: Check where you have Oracle deployed so that you follow the licensing agreement. If you have deployed outside of your territory right, you have a problem that will cost your company money if they find out.

Certification Process

Ask yourself, what is the contractual process for certifying your Oracle ULA ? Oracle contractual text around this ULA exit / Oracle ULA certification is always vague and seem very easy by reading the contract. But it is never easy, and Oracle will ask you to provide far more information about your deployments than ever thought was possible. Yes, you can say "no" to everything Oracle asks for, but then your Oracle ULA exit / certification might take a year and they still have the right to audit you straight ULA exit.

Recommendation: If you follow the road map you won't mind sharing the scripts with Oracle, or you might already have signed a new Oracle ULA. The ULA certification / exit process is only difficult for customers that have not done the preparation work.

Check for limited use & risky clauses

Check in the ordering document for "others" that’s usually where Oracle puts in different limitations on your usage. Many customers have one opinion about a contract clause and Oracle has a completely different. If you don’t have enough courage or expertise you can end up in trouble.

Recommendation: You must have someone on your team that has experience in reading Oracle ULA contracts. If you do, they will easily see any of these contract risks and identify them for you. If there is a risk, you can together make an analysis of its implications and build a strategy for how to manage it. You might do everything correct with licensing, counting all your processors correctly, but if you misunderstood your Oracle ULA contract you might still be millions of euros, pounds or dollars in financial risk.

Common-end-scenarios following this methodology

If you do a proper Oracle ULA renewal here are a few common "end-scenarios"

Scenario 1

• They run data measurement tools and work with and Oracle licensing expert. To help them measure compliance and optimize the Oracle ULA.
• They are compliant at the end of the Oracle Oracle ULA. (No risk)
• They also were able to optimize licensing by using Oracle policies on soft partitioning and deploying on large servers they managed to increase their software licenses from 1000 processors to 1500. While they don't need those 500 extra processor licenses, but as soon as the Oracle ULA has ended, they optimize their licensing so that they have a 500-processor license buffer. It can then be used for future license needs but also making sure that if there is a license audit in the future you have a large buffer of licenses. Those 500 processors of Oracle licenses could have a value of 500 x 47 500 $ = 23,750 000 $ - And remember that support will not increase if you exit your Oracle ULA with far more licenses than what Oracle expected.

Scenario 2

• They run data measurement tools and work with and Oracle licensing expert. To help them measure compliance and optimize the Oracle ULA.
• They understand by the compliance results that they are noncompliant for Oracle software for 30m €/$/￡ . Instead of paying that money to Oracle. They tell their Oracle sales rep that they are willing to renew their Oracle Oracle ULA (but also include the new products in the new Oracle ULA) for 2m €/$/￡. And Oracle never finds out that there was a license gap.
• In addition to getting a good price, the company also leverages the expertise of the Oracle licensing expert to negotiate stronger contract terms to protect them against future compliance risks but also make it easier to exit the new Oracle ULA when it ends.

Top3 mistakes customers are making with Oracle ULAs

1. Run Oracle data measurement tools and hand over the raw output to Oracle. If you do that you are in the mercy of Oracle and i believe 90% chance that Oracle will come back with a large license gap.
2. That you read your Oracle ULA contract, and that you have one opinion and Oracle has another. If you cant back up your opinion with arguments and expertise. Oracle will run you over.
3. That you don't negotiate the certification clause so that you can count your cloud deployments towards any exit number.

If you have not signed your first Oracle ULA, I am sharing some thoughts in the video below on what should be the most important consideration. Unlimited Licensing can be a great deal for some companies, but for others it can become your a nightmare.

Get help from an Oracle licensing expert - contact me.

About Redress Compliance

Redress Compliance is the only independent Oracle Licensing Services Provider. We earn no money from reselling Oracle software, we have no agreements with Oracle, we are also not dependant on delivering Oracle technical consulting. Our only source of revenue is what our clients pay us for Licensing Advice.

We help companies with Oracle Licensing Reviews, License Audit Defence, Oracle ULA services and other Oracle licensing and contract consulting.?

Read more on our blog

Oracle ULA What you should be aware of

Oracle ULA Renewal – What you should be aware of

Oracle ULA Certification – How to exit your Oracle ULA

Oracle ULA Certification: 5 “must ask” questions

Oracle ULA Certification?22 must ask questions

Oracle ULA Negotiation – 5 key terms to include in your contract

Oracle ULA To Cloud

What is an Oracle PULA

Oracle PULA vs Oracle ULA?- 4 differences you should know about

If you need help with your Oracle ULA or licenses we can help. You can contact us at https://redresscompliance.com

Redress Compliance are independent Oracle Licensing Experts, you can book an online meeting with us at https://redresscompliance.com or send email to [email protected]

We help companies in EU, US, APAC and MEA with Oracle Licensing, generally we help companies review Oracle Licensing, License Audits, ULA exits and renewals but every situation is unique.

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