Software Asset Management – Getting Started with Oracle Licensing

Your guide to Oracle licensing and audits 

As one of the world’s largest software publishers, Oracle has a robust auditing program. For most businesses using Oracle, it’s not a matter of ‘if’ but ‘when’ they will be audited. So what steps can you take to make sure your organization is prepared? 

Our Oracle team at Anglepoint has over 50 years of collective experience navigating the ins and outs of Oracle licensing. Today we’re sharing their tips on reducing your Oracle spend by automating the end-to-end lifecycle for software licenses, hardware assets, and cloud resources. 

But first, let’s take a look at some of the challenges of Oracle licensing.
 

The challenges of Oracle licensing:
 

Contracts and unlimited license agreements 

Oracle agreements can be confusing and it’s critical you know about yours. First, do you know where they are? Are they scattered or consolidated in one location? Do you have copies of them available? Have you gone through them and reviewed them? If you have an unlimited license agreement, is it being used enough to prove its value? 

Measurement 

Knowing your usage is another key challenge. It can be hard to track so what kind of tools are you using to measure usage? Or are you trusting your DBAs to self-report? Do you have a SAM tool in place and what exactly are you measuring with it?
 

Compliance 

Compliance is a huge challenge with Oracle. While it’s easier than ever to download and use Oracle products, the responsibility of compliance falls to you as the customer. You won’t often receive warnings that you are using software out of your software agreement so it’s critical you keep on top of your own usage. For example, it’s common for DBAs to unwittingly enable database features that create challenging, costly compliance issues. 

What should you look for in a SAM tool for Oracle?
 

This all sounds like a lot of work and organization navigating these challenges. So what kind of tools can help you keep track of all this? Here are a few key things to look for in an Oracle-specific SAM tool:

• Something that can help you organise your entitlement data centrally  
• It should measure Oracle products including things like Java. You may also want to ask if the tool covers virtualisation like Solaris or VMware 
• You want a tool that rounds out your SAM program on a single platform 
• One that comes with readable and actionable usage reports that help demystify the process
   

How can Anglepoint help? 

With so many years of Oracle knowledge under our belts, we are proud that the services we provide address all of the sticky and particular challenges of this provider. They include: 

• Oracle managed services: we provide Oracle licensing support throughout the year for periodic reporting and optimization for your Oracle environment. 
• Oracle contract review: we help you understand which Oracle products are licenses and what their terms and conditions are. You receive a consolidated, easy-to-understand report detailing your purchased Oracle programs, their metrics, quantities and any restrictions you should be aware of. 
• Optimization services: we don’t want to just monitor your usage, we want to optimize it. We consider topics such as license optimization, infrastructure, and contract optimization. 
• ULA assessment and certification: We gather all the information you need for an Unlimited License Agreement (ULA) certification. You will receive your ULA Certification counts and verification data, as required per Oracle contract, plus an ROI/TCO analysis. 

If you’re currently using Oracle, let us help you take stock so you go into your next audit fully prepared.