Usually when you go up against Oracle it is a herculean effort, a David vs Goliath battle. By being prepared, even if you are the David, you can prevail. When it comes to Oracle licensing there is a lot of FUD as I have written about many times before. You need to read your contract very carefully and understand it and in most cases it is a good idea to get independent legal advice. The consequences of a configuration error or mistake can be very high. What is in the contract isn’t as interesting as what is not in the contract. There is no mention of virtualization, clustering (other than RAC), partitioning etc. There is actually nothing in the contract that prevents you from configuring a VM with just 2 vCPU’s and provided you can prove the software never used more than 2 vCPU’s, only licensing those 2 vCPU’s. But nobody has had the courage to configure just 2 vCPU’s for an Oracle system and pay only the license based on those 2 vCPU’s in a larger environment. They would have had the partitioning guide thrown at them (not contractural and not referred to in the contract, for education purposes only). That is until now!
Daniel Hesselink of License Consulting, a global licensing consulting business with HQ based in the Netherland, is putting his own money where his mouth is. He is taking on Oracle, or hassling Oracle as I put in the title. He recently wrote about an article where he has purchased a 2 vCPU VM in a VPS service and has installed a licensed version of Oracle on the system. As there is nothing against this in the contract, and he can prove he has only ever paid for 2 vCPU’s, there is no way Oracle can say that their software has run anywhere else. This could open up the flood gates of Oracle software in cloud environments. It would also allow for pay as you grow licensing across any hypervisor and any cloud.
So the question is, can you do the same thing? The answer depends on your contract and the wording you have signed up to. Each contract may be slightly different and contain custom wording. You should seek independent advice based on your individual circumstances. Maybe talk to Daniel as this is his business and he’s been doing it successfully for years. If you do decide to go down this road, and do it properly with proper documentation, operational process, audit controls etc, I’d love to hear about your experience, I’m sure Daniel would too.
Final Word
It’s time to take the power and control back over your business and your use of Oracle software. By allowing a pay as you grow model across any cloud environment Oracle software usage would likely skyrocket. Few people have a problem with Oracle technology, most people have a problem with their licensing practices. Their use of their dominant market position to try and get customers on their platform by offering special privileges that are not allowed on other platforms. Only you as their customer can start to turn the tide. But you have to have the courage, the right advice, and the right processes in place to do it safely. You also have to be willing to stand up to Oracle during the inevitable audit when it arrives.
This post first appeared on the Long White Virtual Clouds blog at longwhiteclouds.com. By Michael Webster +. Copyright © 2012 – 2016 – IT Solutions 2000 Ltd and Michael Webster +. All rights reserved. Not to be reproduced for commercial purposes without written permission.