Oracle License Optimization – 10 tips how to reduce costs

Oracle License Optimization – Why?

Are you tired of sky-high Oracle license fees eating into your company’s budget? Look no further because we’ve compiled a list of the top 10 Oracle license optimization tips to help you save money and get the most out of your investments. From hard partitioning and avoiding VMware to leveraging the cloud and exploring third-party support options, these strategies have been proven to yield significant cost savings for Oracle customers. Don’t let expensive licenses hold your company back any longer – read on to learn how you can optimize your Oracle licensing and start saving today.

  1. Use named user-plus licenses in non-production environments to reduce licensing costs by 50%.
  2. Take advantage of special licensing rights for test and development environments, which can lower the minimum number of required users per processor from 25 to 10, resulting in a 60% reduction in costs.
  3. Review the access and usage of Oracle EBS and other applications by users to ensure that everyone who has a license actually needs it. This can often lead to a reduction of over 30% in the number of required licenses.
  4. Consider switching to a hardware platform that allows for hard partitioning or sub-capacity licensing in order to optimize licensing fees.
  5. Moving to Oracle Cloud may allow you to license on a vCPU basis and choose only the Oracle products that you need, potentially leading to more cost-effective options than using AWS or Azure with Bring-Your-Own-License.
  6. Use hardware with higher core factors to reduce the number of required licenses. Oracle has a Processor Core Factor Table that determines the number of licenses needed for certain server models. The higher the core factor, the more licenses are required.
  7. Avoid using VMware in combination with Oracle, as this can lead to an audit. Oracle requires customers to license all VMware servers in their IT environment, even if only using Oracle technology on a few machines. VMware is not recognized as an approved hard partitioning partner by Oracle.
  8. Identify and eliminate shelfware or unused or underutilized licenses that incur maintenance fees. This can be done through the use of Oracle’s monitoring tools and third-party tools, as well as a thorough understanding of Oracle’s licensing programs. Oracle may be more flexible in allowing customers to drop support for certain licenses if they are willing to invest in the company’s cloud offerings.
  9. Take advantage of deals and discounts available when moving Oracle technology to the cloud. It may also be possible to “swap” on-premise software for cloud services.
  10. Consider using third-party support options, which can provide a cost-effective alternative to OEM support. Hybrid support options offer a combination of support from the OEM and their certified partners, while independent third parties offer support for a variety of different technology vendors.

Need expert help?

Our Oracle License Optimization service includes a thorough review of your current licensing arrangements to identify opportunities for cost savings. This includes an analysis of your Oracle EBS and other application usages, as well as a review of your hardware platform to determine if hard partitioning or sub-capacity licensing is possible. We will also examine your current Oracle support agreements and explore options for reducing these costs.

Once we have completed our review, we will provide recommendations for optimizing your Oracle licenses and support contracts. This may include transitioning to named user-plus licenses in non-production environments, taking advantage of special licensing rights for test and development environments, and eliminating unused or underutilized licenses (shelfware). We will also assist with negotiations with Oracle to secure the most favorable pricing and terms for your company.

In addition to our licensing review and contract optimization services, we also offer Oracle support reduction services.