Case Study: Oracle Licensing Remediation and Cost Optimization – $2.1M Exposure Resolved, $200K Saved Annually

Client: Logistics and Supply Chain Company, Midwest USA

Client Background and Oracle Usage Overview

The Client is a leading logistics and freight management company based in the Midwest. It operates across 40 U.S. states with over 15 distribution centers and a fleet of 5,000 vehicles. With real-time inventory tracking, shipment scheduling, and route optimization at the core of its services, the company relied heavily on Oracle technologies to power its custom-built logistics platform.

Key Oracle products in scope included:

• Oracle Database Enterprise Edition
• Oracle Partitioning and Advanced Compression options
• Oracle Real Application Clusters (RAC)
• Oracle GoldenGate is used for real-time data replication between sites

As the company scaled its operations, deployments had outgrown the original licensing model. Redress Compliance was engaged to assess license usage, resolve risk areas, and streamline costs associated with Oracle support.

Discovery and Licensing Review

Redress Compliance performed a structured Oracle license review over a 10-week period. Activities included:

• Running Oracle LMS scripts on core infrastructure
• Reviewing license entitlements, contracts, and support renewals
• Conducting workshops with DBAs, architects, and infrastructure leads
• Mapping physical and virtual deployments, including VMware and bare metal

Findings from the review included:

• Oracle RAC was deployed in high-availability environments but not covered in the original license pool
• GoldenGate had been rolled out across multiple distribution centers without corresponding processor licenses
• Partitioning and Advanced Compression were enabled on nearly all production databases, despite not being licensed
• Several environments were hosted on VMware clusters, triggering full-cluster licensing exposure under Oracle policy

Identified Risks and License Exposure

The review uncovered $2.1 million in license shortfalls, including:

• $800K in unlicensed Oracle RAC usage
• $700K for Oracle Database options (Partitioning, Advanced Compression)
• $600K related to GoldenGate deployments on unlicensed nodes

The company was unaware of most of these exposures, as features had been enabled by default or configured during performance tuning efforts by third-party integrators.

Remediation and Optimization Plan

Redress Compliance implemented a cost-effective remediation plan that avoided retroactive purchases and improved license efficiency.

1. GoldenGate Deployment Rationalization
   • Reduced the number of active replication pairs by consolidating hub sites
   • Disabled GoldenGate on low-priority routes and moved replication to batch jobs
   • Result: Removed $600K in unlicensed deployments from scope
2. Option Deactivation
   • Guided DBAs in disabling Partitioning and Advanced Compression where not in active use
   • Tuned performance on affected systems to maintain service levels
   • Result: Mitigated $700K in option-related exposure
3. Oracle RAC License Procurement
   • Facilitated the purchase of a limited number of Oracle RAC licenses, aligned to actual high-availability nodes
   • Negotiated favorable discounting through Oracle’s account team after presenting optimized architecture
   • Result: Reduced RAC exposure by 50%, cutting the financial impact in half
4. VMware Strategy Adjustment
   • Isolated Oracle workloads to a dedicated VMware cluster
   • Limited licensing scope to only those physical hosts supporting Oracle
   • Documented cluster configurations to pre-empt audit findings

Support Cost Optimization

The licensing changes allowed the Client to:

• Remove unused or duplicate CSI contracts
• Decommission legacy systems previously left on extended Oracle support
• Avoid a support escalation tied to a proposed infrastructure upgrade

Result: Annual Oracle support costs were reduced by $200,000, primarily through scope reduction and contract consolidation.

Conclusion

This engagement helped the logistics company eliminate licensing risk and reduce its Oracle spend in a high-availability, performance-sensitive environment.

By combining deep Oracle licensing expertise with infrastructure-level analysis, Redress Compliance enabled the Client to continue growing its logistics operations, without risking a costly audit or overpaying for unused Oracle features.

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