Explore the Secrets of Oracle Cloud Licensing

• Organizations are considering moving workloads to the cloud; however, they often struggle to understand Oracle's licensing and services models.
• Complexity of licensing and high price tags can make the renewal process an overwhelming experience.
• Oracle’s SaaS applications are the most mature, but Oracle’s on-premises E-Business Suite still has functionality gaps in comparison to Oracle’s cloud apps.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

• Understand the Oracle agenda. Oracle has established a unique approach to their cloud offerings – they want all of your workloads on the Red Stack.
• Communicate effectively. Be aware that Oracle will reach out to members at your organization at various levels. Having your executives on the same page is critical to successfully managing Oracle.
• Negotiate hard. Oracle needs the deal more than the customer. Oracle's top leaders are heavily incentivized to drive massive cloud adoption and increase Oracle's share price. Use this to your advantage.

Impact and Result

• Conducting business with Oracle is not typical compared to other vendors. To emerge successfully from a commercial transaction with Oracle, customers must learn the “Oracle way” of conducting business, which includes a best-in-class sales structure, highly unique contracts, and license use policies coupled with a hyper-aggressive compliance function.
• Leverage cloud spend to retire support on shelf-ware licenses, or gain virtualization rights for an on-premises environment.
• Map out the process of how to negotiate from a position of strength, examining terms and conditions, discount percentages, and agreement pitfalls.
• Carefully review key clauses in the Oracle Cloud Services Agreement to avoid additional spend and compliance risks.