Oracle ULA audits are a license to bill

Oracle is threatening software audits as customers seek to exit Unlimited License Agreements (ULAs). ULAs offer unlimited licenses for specific Oracle products under a contractual arrangement with Big Red. The dominant database and application vendor considers these agreements "an easy way for a large global organization to …

[Tim99]

I've posted this before...

I heard this at the bar when on an Oracle course in the 1980s.

Q: What do you call Oracle customers? A: Hostages.

[Doctor Syntax]

The only way to win is to not play.

[b0llchit]

...but there are cheaper options

Yes, install anything else than oracle software.

[abend0c4]

The things is, the software doesn't get sold to the people who get to install it. It gets sold by rapacious salesmen in suits to clueless people in suits who are responsible to already-wealthy people in suits who falsely believe they are rich because people in suits are by definition competent and share their best interests. And, periodically, they all change places and seamlessly assume the character of their latest role. Actual goods and services don't really figure in their world.

[David Newall]

Goods

Funny word to use to describe Oracle

[Doctor Syntax]

Re: Goods

Like the OP said, it belongs to a world in which goods and services don't figure.

[Doctor Syntax]

"The things is, the software doesn't get sold to the people who get to install it."

So let the people in suits buy Orrigble but install something else. The suits aren't going to know and it'll frustrate the hell out of the audit vultures..

[Plest]

One of the most repugnant people I've ever met was an Oracle sales person around 25 years ago. He was straight out of Goodfellas, sharp suit, shirt collar undone, gold chain, Rolex, rings and so much gel in his slick back hair, the kind of person who "oozes" into a room when they arrive.

[Bebu]

so much gel in his slick back hair,

《so much gel in his slick back hair》

Brylcream surely, or Brillantine, or Macassar oil?

The upside is this stuff should be highly flammable (hint.)

[jonathan keith]

I don't understand.

Is their software so good that it justifies the accompanying hell?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I don't understand.

It was good in the mid-90s…. Now SqlServer and Postgres are both much better.

Oracle does have nonstandard SQL syntax to lock you in, of course…

[Yorick Hunt]

Re: I don't understand.

”Oracle does have nonstandard SQL syntax to lock you in, of course…”

I'm pretty sure you could hire a small army of competent developers to revise the software to use a different server, for less than the cost of continuing to bend over for the failed saxophonist.

[aerogems]

Corporate Mafia

Actually, that's probably not fair. The mafia could likely learn a few lessons from Oracle on how to shake people down.