After dealing with Oracle compliance issues for 25 years, we understand that it is a very complex and an evolving problem for our clients. Most companies struggle with staying up to date with environment changes, Oracle’s new products, and complex contracts. In this article, we will help you understand three common Oracle compliance issues and their pitfalls. We recommend to all of our clients that the key to compliance is the importance of understanding your Oracle contracts and reading through all the fine print that found online at Oracle.com. We have found that the single largest reason that audits are initiated is that Oracle has a better insight into what is installed than the client! Use these three key ideas to get better management and control of a potentially very risky software asset!
1. Understand your Oracle contracts, products and the granted licensing metrics.
You need to deep dive into finding out how your Oracle products are licensed. Your contracts should be your go-to source of information to understand your company’s exact purchases. This self-discovery could be very enlightening and should include those contracts from acquisitions or mergers. You may think it is too late or too complex to understand the compliance Oracle requires but reviewing now is better than reviewing after an audit. There are many variations of licensing metrics and policies. We recommend client’s gather their contracts and carefully review them to get a complete understanding of exactly how license compliance should be measured.
2. Know exactly how your company uses your Oracle products
Good Software Asset Management (SAM) practice is to have records of how your software is deployed. With Oracle, many products are licensed based on your hardware and you need to know exactly what you have installed and where it is installed. These records should be revisited annually, at a minimum, to ensure compliance with the metrics and versions/editions purchased. Even small changes to your environments can have significant downstream impacts on your license compliance! The key to success is being proactive and understanding what contracts you have and how they should be used.
3. Rethink Your virtualization strategy
Oracle’s approach to competitor virtualization products is draconian and there has been much discussion in the marketplace on this topic. By far the largest issue Oracle finds during audits is with VMware deployments. Oracle has specific and unpublished rules around VMware deployments that clients typically are not aware of until an audit is conducted! Oracle’s auditing arm, LMS, uses these findings to increase the starting point of compliance issues and force resolutions on clients in the millions of dollars! Are you sure that you understand how Oracle will view your specific VMware (or other) virtualized deployment? If not, then you may be at high risk of a compliance issue and should carefully review before an audit occurs.
Need help? SLC wants to help you with your compliance assurance and Oracle needs. Our process will help you take a step towards avoiding an Oracle audit. Remember that while audits do happen, if you’ve done your homework then you can mitigate that risk. Contact us today for answers to your Software Licensing questions and SLC will help you become compliant while saving you money!
