Top10 ways for how to reduce Oracle software costs

We all know Oracle support is very expensive, to know just how expensive have a look at Oracle public price list (technology) .

It's very easy to deliver savings to your company if you care enough. Often I feel, I care more than my clients about savings on Oracle software licenses. I understand that it's rarely someones full-time job to find software cost savings and that many companies are over-whelmed and it's a challenge just to stay compliant.

But here is some help for whoever has the will and time to save money on software licensing.

1.??BE COMPLIANT, best (and only way) is to use/run Oracle Audit scripts on your databases, middleware or applications. They will find that you are non-compliant (they always do)

It is not for over-usage, it's most likely misinterpreting licensing policy or something used by mistake.?Remediate this instead of waiting for the next audit.

2.??REMOVE UNUSED SOFTWARE If you do #1 you will also find out that you have 25%+ unused software. This can be removed/terminated. Assume you have an annual support contract with Oracle, and you pay 2m € - that’s potentially 500?000 € in savings.

3.?CHANGE LICENSE MODEL Many companies we come across with have licensed test and development with processor license metrics.

In 9/10 cases this can be changed to a user-based licensing (Named User Plus) and you save 50% of your licensing. Often a big chunk of a company Oracle software estate is used for test & dev. You can ask Oracle to convert your existing processor licenses to user-based licensing.

Make your own calculations but if your support contract with Oracle is 1m € annually for database. We can assume half (500k €) of that is being used for your test and dev. The savings will then be 250k €

4.?MOVE TO 3RD PARTY SUPPORT If you are running legacy applications that does not require any upgrades. Consider moving to third party support. However, it can be very costly if you pick the wrong 3rd party provider or if you are not performing a license review before moving. I hear good stuff from customers moving to Spinnaker Support, not so good things about Rimini Street.

5.?PREVENT FUTURE AUDITS It is easy to prevent your company from being audited. Some companies are being audited frequently; others have not been audited for 10 years.

If you are not audited by Oracle, you will save yourself plenty of time focusing on pro-active activities rather than being re-active.

6.?NEGOTIATE BETTER AGREEMENTS 90% of all companies we speak have not maximized their commercials terms with Oracle. Very few companies understand what is market best terms and simply settle for what they recieved in the past. Find out what is the realistic negotiation target by asking colleagues or experts.

7.?NEGOTIATE THE ANNUAL SUPPORT RENEWAL Yes, you can negotiate the annual renewal. I have heard clients tell me “we tried but, Oracle said no” – my advice is don’t take “no” for an answer. It's easy to remove the 0% uplift without committing you for 3 years. Read more "22-must-ask questions when you want to reduce Oracle support fees"

8.?INFRASTRUCTURE If you have Oracle technology, by changing the server provider you can often reduce licensing requirements by up to 50%. Oracle hardware, Nutanix or IBM hardware are usually license efficient. If you today are running on HP or Dell, you can most likely change technical platform and cut your licensing needs in half.

9.?DOWNGRADING My own estimate is that 50% of all companies have Enterprise edition version of their software when the technical requirements are only for Standard edition. Investigate why you have enterprise edition. If there is no need for enterprise, downgrade/buy standard edition. You will deliver savings within 12 months.

10.?CANCEL YOUR ORACLE SUPPORT Yes, you can leave Oracle support all together. That way you will save your company the full annual support. How critical are the systems running Oracle??It’s quite common that we come across legacy application such as PeopleSoft or EBS where the company have already decided on a new platform. But they still keep on paying annual support to Oracle.My advice, get off Oracle support or move to 3rd party support.

If you want to discuss how your company can reduce your Oracle Software costs and wants to better understand your options contact me by visiting our company website and book a meeting- click?here

Other Oracle License Management - reading

If you want know more about Oracle ULAs, my colleague Morten recently wrote an article?"21-must-ask questions about the Oracle ULA agreement"

If you want to avoid renewing your ULA against your will, i recommend reading this article?"how to avoid a forced Oracle ULA renewal"

Are you under an Oracle license audit and Oracle wants you to pay for vmware? Read this article to better understand that Oracle audits are not fair.?"Oracle Audit Pay or Don't pay?

If you are looking at reducing support fees for Oracle, ULA agreements is the worst agreement you can sign. Read more at?"22-must-ask question when you want to reduce Oracle support fees"

If you just got a Oracle license audit letter and wants to know how to manage or win your Oracle license audit. I recently wrote a guide?"22-must-ask-questions in an Oracle license audit"

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