Features licensing and standard Oracle technical support
I think many software developers and entrepreneurs will be interested in some features of the licensing policy and technical support of Oracle.
Starting to develop your applications on Oracle is very simple, and Oracle will not take money for this. The interesting will begin later when the project will need to be legalized.
With each purchase of Oracle licenses by both parties, a document is signed called the âOrder Formâ, which contains the transfer of the licenses, the start date of their validity and the cost.
Oracle requires 100% prepayment for all its products and technical support. The exception to this rule can be obtained only by budget organizations, asking for it in an official letter.
')
When buying software products immediately sold for sure and standard technical support for them for a period of 1 year.
The essence of standard technical support (hereinafter - STP) is that the person who bought it has the right to switch to the next version of the software for free, and also gets access to support.oracle.com, where you can register your bug reports, read solutions for others, download patches .
Of course, under the FST program, Oracle solves only mass problems. If you want to get the attention of Oracle engineers to their configuration, then you need to purchase extended technical support for the standard TP (Oracle manager will estimate how many hours and what they need to spend, multiply by 3.14, etc.). Of course, a 100% prepayment is required, and at the end of the contract unspent funds are not returned and are not transferred to the next period of extended support.
The cost of STP for the 1st year is 22% of the cost of licenses specified in the Order Form. Each subsequent year, the cost of TSS increases by 3% of its value (not of the cost of licenses, but by 3% of its previous value).
Oracle calls this premium âinflation rateâ. In the license agreement [ 1 ], Oracle promises not to increase the cost of standard technical support by more than 4% per year (Point H on page 4).
From the second year onwards, standard technical support can be abandoned and continue to legally use purchased products, but there are two nuances:
1. If you ever need a STP later, then before you can buy it, Oracle will ask you to pay a fine - 1.5 times more than a standard TP would cost for a missed period.
It is clear that in this way Oracle insures against the options âonce in 3 years I bought a STF for a period of 1 year and updated the software versionâ. In my opinion, a certain amount for the renewal of the TP can be demanded, but the presence of a multiplying factor goes well beyond the boundaries of good. Not only that, in fact, Oracle receives payment for the undelivered service (in Russia it is illegal), it is also 1.5 times more.
2. Oracle divides its software products into âsubset of licensesâ - groups of licenses according to their purpose (Database, Middleware, Applications, etc.), and it does not matter that they are purchased at different times for different Order Form.
For example, all Database Oracle purchased by you will be assigned to one âset of licensesâ, and WebLogic Server will fall into another. Read more about what software is included in which âbundleâ can be found in Oracle Software Technical Support Policies [ 2 ].
Oracle requires the User to have all the licenses from one âbundleâ at the same level of standard technical support. Levels of two - "there is STF" and "no STP".
Now suppose you have a long-acquired Database Standard, on which you have some kind of auxiliary system, and you did not need a TAP for it. Over time, you had to purchase Database Enterprise business-critical task. So you got a penalty for the missed period of the STD for DB Standard.
Oracle offers a wonderful way out of this situation - to give up âextraâ licenses for which you do not want to pay a penalty for the missed period of the TST, writing the so-called Termination Letter.
Here, some will think whether it is possible to transfer DB Standard to a friendly legal entity before purchasing DBE. Without going deep, Iâll note that itâs not easy to share Oracle with different âownâ legal entities, for example, you cannot let users from another legal entity in a DB if it is licensed by NUP, and not by the CPU.
One of the positive aspects of cooperation with Oracle is that if you buy licenses for millions of dollars, you have a chance to achieve a big discount, even more than 50% of the GPL (standard price list) [ 3 ]. At the same time, the cost of standard technical support changes proportionally.
But even here there was a pair of tar ladies:
1. The discount is associated with a specific Order Form, and the purchase of new licenses does not affect the cost of the TAP for licenses purchased earlier. Those. you STF on the same product, purchased for different Order Forms, can cost differently. If your company grew, purchases increased, the discount increased, and you wanted to pay less for STF first licenses, then there are no options - write a Termination Letter, discard them, then buy them again, but with a higher discount.
2. At the same time, the rejection of part of the licenses within one Order Form leads to recalculation of the discount on all products purchased under this Order Form. The recalculation algorithm, if any, is known only to Oracle. I know from experience that although the cost of the TST does not increase, but it may not decrease at all, making it pointless to reject a small part of the licenses from one Order Form for the sake of reducing the amount of TST.
After purchasing SUN, Oracle began to distribute its well-developed technical support policy for equipment:
1. The number of technical support options has been reduced.
2. A fine was introduced for the missed period of technical support - as usual, one and a half times higher than the cost of the TA for the same period.
3. In order to force everyone to buy technical support, service centers were generally forbidden to repair hardware that was not under contract for technical support.
Great products are being developed at Oracle (they say, only the installers have failed so far), and you can easily get them from the official site, and there is no protection against unlicensed use ...
But it is better to carefully read the license agreement before the start of development, so that there are no unpleasant surprises afterwards.
1. Agreement on licensing and services of Oracle (in Russian and English).
2. Oracle Software Technical Support Policies.
3. Oracle price lists.
Starting to develop your applications on Oracle is very simple, and Oracle will not take money for this. The interesting will begin later when the project will need to be legalized.
Order Form and Standard Technical Support Cost
With each purchase of Oracle licenses by both parties, a document is signed called the âOrder Formâ, which contains the transfer of the licenses, the start date of their validity and the cost.
Oracle requires 100% prepayment for all its products and technical support. The exception to this rule can be obtained only by budget organizations, asking for it in an official letter.
')
When buying software products immediately sold for sure and standard technical support for them for a period of 1 year.
The essence of standard technical support (hereinafter - STP) is that the person who bought it has the right to switch to the next version of the software for free, and also gets access to support.oracle.com, where you can register your bug reports, read solutions for others, download patches .
Of course, under the FST program, Oracle solves only mass problems. If you want to get the attention of Oracle engineers to their configuration, then you need to purchase extended technical support for the standard TP (Oracle manager will estimate how many hours and what they need to spend, multiply by 3.14, etc.). Of course, a 100% prepayment is required, and at the end of the contract unspent funds are not returned and are not transferred to the next period of extended support.
The cost of STP for the 1st year is 22% of the cost of licenses specified in the Order Form. Each subsequent year, the cost of TSS increases by 3% of its value (not of the cost of licenses, but by 3% of its previous value).
Oracle calls this premium âinflation rateâ. In the license agreement [ 1 ], Oracle promises not to increase the cost of standard technical support by more than 4% per year (Point H on page 4).
Consequences of refusing technical support
From the second year onwards, standard technical support can be abandoned and continue to legally use purchased products, but there are two nuances:
1. If you ever need a STP later, then before you can buy it, Oracle will ask you to pay a fine - 1.5 times more than a standard TP would cost for a missed period.
It is clear that in this way Oracle insures against the options âonce in 3 years I bought a STF for a period of 1 year and updated the software versionâ. In my opinion, a certain amount for the renewal of the TP can be demanded, but the presence of a multiplying factor goes well beyond the boundaries of good. Not only that, in fact, Oracle receives payment for the undelivered service (in Russia it is illegal), it is also 1.5 times more.
2. Oracle divides its software products into âsubset of licensesâ - groups of licenses according to their purpose (Database, Middleware, Applications, etc.), and it does not matter that they are purchased at different times for different Order Form.
For example, all Database Oracle purchased by you will be assigned to one âset of licensesâ, and WebLogic Server will fall into another. Read more about what software is included in which âbundleâ can be found in Oracle Software Technical Support Policies [ 2 ].
Oracle requires the User to have all the licenses from one âbundleâ at the same level of standard technical support. Levels of two - "there is STF" and "no STP".
Now suppose you have a long-acquired Database Standard, on which you have some kind of auxiliary system, and you did not need a TAP for it. Over time, you had to purchase Database Enterprise business-critical task. So you got a penalty for the missed period of the STD for DB Standard.
Oracle offers a wonderful way out of this situation - to give up âextraâ licenses for which you do not want to pay a penalty for the missed period of the TST, writing the so-called Termination Letter.
Here, some will think whether it is possible to transfer DB Standard to a friendly legal entity before purchasing DBE. Without going deep, Iâll note that itâs not easy to share Oracle with different âownâ legal entities, for example, you cannot let users from another legal entity in a DB if it is licensed by NUP, and not by the CPU.
Oracle Discount Policy Features
One of the positive aspects of cooperation with Oracle is that if you buy licenses for millions of dollars, you have a chance to achieve a big discount, even more than 50% of the GPL (standard price list) [ 3 ]. At the same time, the cost of standard technical support changes proportionally.
But even here there was a pair of tar ladies:
1. The discount is associated with a specific Order Form, and the purchase of new licenses does not affect the cost of the TAP for licenses purchased earlier. Those. you STF on the same product, purchased for different Order Forms, can cost differently. If your company grew, purchases increased, the discount increased, and you wanted to pay less for STF first licenses, then there are no options - write a Termination Letter, discard them, then buy them again, but with a higher discount.
2. At the same time, the rejection of part of the licenses within one Order Form leads to recalculation of the discount on all products purchased under this Order Form. The recalculation algorithm, if any, is known only to Oracle. I know from experience that although the cost of the TST does not increase, but it may not decrease at all, making it pointless to reject a small part of the licenses from one Order Form for the sake of reducing the amount of TST.
Goodbye, SUN
After purchasing SUN, Oracle began to distribute its well-developed technical support policy for equipment:
1. The number of technical support options has been reduced.
2. A fine was introduced for the missed period of technical support - as usual, one and a half times higher than the cost of the TA for the same period.
3. In order to force everyone to buy technical support, service centers were generally forbidden to repair hardware that was not under contract for technical support.
Conclusion
Great products are being developed at Oracle (they say, only the installers have failed so far), and you can easily get them from the official site, and there is no protection against unlicensed use ...
But it is better to carefully read the license agreement before the start of development, so that there are no unpleasant surprises afterwards.
Links
1. Agreement on licensing and services of Oracle (in Russian and English).
2. Oracle Software Technical Support Policies.
3. Oracle price lists.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/127063/
All Articles