Case Study – Oracle Licensing Assessment -Asian Telecom Operator – Oracle Database & Middleware
Background: A telecommunications provider in India utilized Oracle Database as the backbone for its subscriber management and billing systems, leveraging Oracle Fusion Middleware for integration. The fast expansion of services had outpaced license tracking, prompting an Oracle licensing assessment.
Challenges: Key findings from the assessment included:
- Unbudgeted License Growth: As new subscriber services were launched, additional Oracle databases were quickly spun up without corresponding license acquisitions. This led to an under-licensing situation with a potential liability in the millions of dollars if left unaddressed.
- Inefficient License Use: Many database instances were running on powerful servers but with low utilization. The telco was effectively over-licensing hardware (paying for all CPU cores) despite modest actual usage.
- Compliance Issues in DR/HA: Some standby and disaster recovery databases were not licensed in accordance with Oracle’s strict rules (e.g., using Active Data Guard without licenses, or failing to adhere to the 10-day rule for DR tests).
Solution: We implemented a comprehensive Oracle license optimization strategy:
- License Rebalancing: We analyzed each Oracle database’s workload and, in several cases, migrated databases from Enterprise Edition to Standard Edition where the features in use allowed it. This immediately reduced license requirements and support fees for those systems.
- Core Factor Optimization: For critical systems that required Enterprise Edition, we architected their deployment to run on fewer, high-performance cores, leveraging Oracle’s Core Factor table to minimize the licensable CPU count.
- Policy Compliance for DR: Ensured all standby databases were either covered by Data Guard licenses or configured as truly inactive (to meet Oracle’s free 10-day rule for DR usage). This eliminated a lurking compliance gap with minimal impact on resiliency.
Outcome: Through these optimizations, the telecom fully eliminated its Oracle license shortfall, achieving 100% compliance without any penalty fees. The potential multi-million dollar compliance exposure was neutralized.
Furthermore, by rightsizing license deployment, the company cut its ongoing Oracle support costs by roughly 30%. Much of this savings came from not paying Enterprise Edition support where it was no longer needed and negotiating a more favorable support structure for the streamlined environment.
The client is now better prepared for any Oracle audit, with an accurate Effective License Position and a cost-effective Oracle architecture. (Notably, such proactive measures have saved organizations from massive audit penalties – e.g., one healthcare network avoided 88% of a $10M Oracle compliance claim after similar remediation efforts.)
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