Oracle ULA Case Study: Irish Fintech Firm Optimizes Licensing and Certifies Out of Oracle ULA
Oracle ULA Case Study – Irish Fintech Firm Certifies and Cuts $5M in Future Oracle Costs
Background
- Industry & Country: Financial Technology (SaaS platform), Ireland
- Company Profile: A fast-growing fintech company headquartered in Dublin, serving banks and insurers globally with a cloud-based platform; 2,500 employees
- Oracle Usage: The firm’s platform runs on Oracle Database Enterprise Edition for core transaction processing, deployed across both on-premises servers in Ireland and AWS cloud instances for global reach
- ULA Situation: 3-year Oracle ULA in place (covering Oracle Database and WebLogic) from when the company scaled up its platform, approaching its end. The team was considering exiting to cut costs, as they were adopting open-source databases for new services.
Challenges
- Mixed infrastructure: Running Oracle in a hybrid environment (data center + AWS) introduced licensing complexity. Their ULA contract had unclear terms about AWS deployments. The company worried that once the ULA ended, those cloud instances might not be legally covered, exposing them to compliance issues.
- Cost-conscious growth: As a scale-up, the fintech was very cost-conscious. Renewing the ULA would lock them into high Oracle support fees for years. They believed they could manage with existing licenses if optimized, but only if they handled the Oracle ULA certification perfectly to capture enough licenses.
- Optimizing vs. overbuying: A key concern was right-sizing. If they certified too few licenses, future growth would force expensive purchases. If they artificially inflated usage just to maximize numbers, they’d pay support on idle licenses, straining the budget. Finding the optimal balance for certification was tricky.
- Lean IT team: The company’s IT asset management team was small, and they had never gone through a ULA exit before. They lacked experience in Oracle’s audit scripts, certification forms, and the negotiation that might be needed if Oracle challenged their claims.
How Oracle Licensing Experts Helped
- Hybrid environment review: Oracle Licensing Experts analyzed the client’s architecture, especially the AWS setup. They confirmed which cloud deployments were covered under the ULA and which were not. For any not formally covered, they strategized solutions, such as moving a few Oracle workloads from AWS to the data center temporarily so they could be counted under on-premises licenses during certification, avoiding a gap.
- License usage optimization: The team performed a detailed analysis to determine the sweet spot for certification. They looked at current peak usage and projected needs. With this insight, they advised the client to slightly increase certain Oracle VM capacities and user counts before the ULA expiry (to capture a bit of headroom), but not to the point of absurdity. This method ensured a solid cushion of licenses via certification, without burdening the company with excessive support costs afterward.
- Certification process execution: OLE guided the fintech through every step of the Oracle ULA certification process. They ran Oracle’s license audit scripts on all servers and verified the output. They prepared the official certification letter, ensuring it was accurate and comprehensive. When Oracle’s reviewers came back with questions (as expected), Oracle Licensing Experts handled the interactions, providing evidence and clarifications directly. The lean internal team didn’t have to scramble – OLE had it under control.
- Post-ULA licensing strategy: Beyond just certifying, the consultants helped the client plan for the post-ULA world. They outlined how the newly certified licenses could be allocated to cover AWS deployments (using Oracle’s cloud licensing policies effectively) and advised on transitioning some systems to open-source databases. Additionally, they recommended exploring third-party support to cut ongoing costs now that the company’s Oracle footprint would be fixed.
Outcome
- Successful exit with optimal licenses: The fintech certified out of the ULA, securing enough Oracle licenses to cover its current services and anticipated growth for the next few years. For example, they locked in 4,000 Oracle Database licenses – a number carefully tuned to avoid a shortfall but also avoid paying for thousands of unused licenses.
- Major cost savings: By not renewing, the company saves approximately $5 million over the next three years. They also immediately reduced support costs by 40% by moving their Oracle databases to a third-party support provider post-certification.
- No cloud surprises: Thanks to the preemptive adjustments and careful license allocation, the Oracle databases running in AWS remained fully licensed after the ULA. Oracle’s audit (12 months post-exit) found no compliance issues with the cloud deployments or anywhere else. The hybrid model continues smoothly under proper licensing.
- Agility regained: The end of the ULA, managed correctly, gave the company more flexibility. They are no longer tied to Oracle’s contract timelines and can gradually reduce Oracle usage on their own schedule. Meanwhile, the licenses they obtained cover their needs, so there’s no hindrance to current operations. The IT team, despite being small, gained valuable expertise through this process and feels more confident handling licensing optimizations in the future.
Executive Quote
“As a tech company, we’re always balancing performance, cost, and flexibility. Exiting our Oracle ULA was a move to control costs, but we were anxious about doing it right. Oracle Licensing Experts turned out to be the perfect partner. They understood the nuances of our cloud and on-prem mix, helped us fine-tune our usage for certification, and basically carried out the whole process for us. We ended up with the Goldilocks number of licenses – not too few, not too many – and we’re saving a ton by not renewing. This frees up budget for innovation while keeping our Oracle footprint compliant.”
— CTO, Fintech Company (Ireland)
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