back to article Quickest way to save with Oracle? Get off Unlimited Licensing Agreements, says pundit

The quickest way to save money on Oracle licences is to get off its Unlimited Licensing Agreements, a well placed Big Red audit expert claims. According to Oracle, its ULA agreements are "generally considered an easy way for a large, global organization to support business agility and value creation." It claimed [PDF] one …

  1. Sammy Smalls

    Oracle in Byzantine overpriced license shocker. Bears are still using the woods as necessary after their morning coffee.

  2. MiguelC Silver badge

    "The quickest way to save money on Oracle licences is to get off its Unlimited Licensing Agreements, a well placed Big Red audit expert claims."

    Let me just ... snip... hmm... ok, that's more like it:

    "The quickest way to save money on Oracle licences is to get off."

    1. b0llchit Silver badge
      Meh

      The only way to win is not to play.

  3. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

    3 Rules

    Do not get involved in a land war in Asia

    Do not go up against a Sicilian when death is on the line

    Do not invite a vampire Oracle salesman in

    1. Duncan Macdonald

      Re: 3 Rules

      Bit unfair to vampires !!!

  4. TVU

    Quickest way to save with Oracle?

    "or move off Oracle software"

    ^ Now that's the best way to deal with that particular extortionware operation. I make sure that no enterprise I am involved with has anything to do with Lanai Larry.

    1. Bebu

      Re: Quickest way to save with Oracle?

      I always wondered whether big red learnt some its tricks from big blue :)

      I remember back in the early 90s we had 4 or 5 ibm aix workstation (rs6k) which only ran some sort of 3D modelling software (ibm license - one off payment) but required a rdbms backend (db2?) for which there was an annual maintenance license $4000-5000 (1990s dollars) per year. I was approached to see if postgres could replace the ibm rdbms which it appeared that it could as it only did simple sql queries and inserts (oracle would have done the job too - had site license then.)

      Turned out that ibm held that not paying the rdbms license maintenance would revoke the application's license - so pretty much shafted. I don't know the ultimate outcome as I departed for different, but not greener, fields.

      I suppose the workstations were eventually e-wasted and problem solved.

      I guess when you sup with large american corporations you do need a very long spoon. Actually Lucifer might be preferable to Larry.

      Did Larry get some of twitter or was the cheque postdated? ;)

  5. Neil Barnes Silver badge

    Three rules of thermodynamics

    You can't win.

    You can't break even.

    You can't get out of the game.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Big Red

    It must be my age and background in oil & gas but, whenever I see “Big Red” mentioned I immediately think of Halliburton. That had been their moniker from a time well before Oracle came into being.

    1. Lost Neutrino

      Re: Big Red

      And when I see "Big Red" in the context of oil & gas, I have to think of John Wayne as a Texan oil man. Alright, so I like some of the old, totally not PC movies...

    2. M.V. Lipvig Silver badge

      Re: Big Red

      And I, not being a database guru or an oil man, think of the only soda worth drinking.

  7. bregister
    Joke

    after Oracle are bought out by Microsoft things will improve immeasureably.

    1. Martin Summers

      I know you were joking, but I'd hope even Microsoft wouldn't want to touch their offerings with a poop stick.

    2. Lost Neutrino

      Microracle? Orasoft?

      1. ecofeco Silver badge

        Mirorcolsoft.

  8. Mike 137 Silver badge

    I'm amazed, simply amazed!!!!

    "whatever you spend with Oracle on-prem, say a million dollars a year, Oracle wants you to give up all those licences and move to the cloud and spend three to four million"

    Three to four million right now, but next year ... IT is for the vendor, not the user. Once the have you by the balls, they don't give a shit about your hearts and minds.

    1. Lost Neutrino

      Re: I'm amazed, simply amazed!!!!

      "Once the have you by the balls, they don't give a shit about your hearts and minds."

      Oh, how cynical! Oracle's cloud pricing advertising states clearly:

      * better price-performance

      * makes it simple to save money

      * greater cost effectiveness

      They wouldn't try to fib about that, would they?

      Incidentally, I thought what Hacker actually said was: "Once you have them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow" (or wallets, in cloud customers' case)

      1. Mike 137 Silver badge

        Re: I'm amazed, simply amazed!!!!

        "ncidentally, I thought what Hacker actually said was: "Once you have them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow" (or wallets, in cloud customers' case)"

        Er yes, he did. I've taken the concept one stage nearer the reality.

  9. surfer79

    At least he isnt saying there are new audits, you guys write in 2019 oracle is doing audits for java, then you do it again. pure scare tactics and I am not a fan of Oracle. You guys should get opinion from sone who actually knows what is going on with Oracle.

  10. oldCynic();

    I kind of get the Postgress slingers point, but it's hiding a few truths. In a ULA, you get all you can eat for a limited period of time, say three years, upon the end of such period there is a tally up. Regardless of if you have deployed 1 core or 10,000 cores, you keep paying the same dollar figure to keep using that quantity. If you want to keep growing, you sign up another ULA for another period of time and so on ad infinitum. Most customers are savvy enough to deploy quite a lot more than they actually need prior to tally up time. ULA's are one of the few ways you can beat O at the licensing game. I'm surprised they're still offered.

  11. Dideyesneeze

    The quickest way to save on Oracle?

    The value of a (P)ULA is maximized the moment you sign it. So terminate and certify.

    The value of support is $0 if you standardize on 12.2 with an archive of upgrades and patches. So cancel.

    This article was relevant 20+ years ago when Oracle was innovating its database. Not so much anymore.

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