With the inevitability and benefits of cloud computing clear, companies are charting their respective courses from on-premise to the cloud. One key consideration is how to get the best value out of existing software licenses and deploying them in the cloud. For an Oracle customer, moving from on-premise to IaaS alternatives will likely be a first step, at least until PaaS and SaaS offerings reach full maturity. Planning your move of Oracle licenses to the cloud requires a firm grasp of not only your Oracle contracts and metric definitions, but of the technologies underlying the cloud environments as well.
The topic of assessing and sizing instance sizes for Oracle licensing in different cloud vendors was addressed in detail in a recent article. For further reading, head on here: Northern California Oracle User Group Journal (February, 2017) – page 19. The key thing to keep in mind is that the approach presented in the article is based on Oracle contractual language. This is important, in light of Oracle’s recent policy announcement that effectively doubles the cost of moving Oracle licenses into AWS and Azure cloud environments. As any other Oracle customer, you should consider all cloud options and let the decision making be driven by best-fit and how things fall in line with your strategic plan, and not be driven by arbitrary dictates in the form of “policy” pronouncements from Oracle – announcements that attempt to limit your cloud options (or make them a lot more expensive).
Stay tuned for another detailed post addressing Oracle’s latest policy change, and suggestions on how to handle the change while you plan your move to the cloud. In the post we will cover the following:
- The effects of the policy, and the elimination of the core factor.
- “Approved” and not-“approved” cloud vendors.
- Effects for Unlimited License Agreement (ULA) customers.
Stay tuned.