Ask any Oracle ULA customer, and they will tell you how much Oracle wants them to renew their ULAs. Letting a ULA expire and certifying is not in Oracle’s best interests – whether or not the customer wants to. As such, Oracle will often apply negotiation tactics and leverages to get a customer to simply renew the ULA. If a customer insists on letting the ULA expire, and go down the certification route, Oracle may no longer have the incentive to be “nice” and may make things difficult.
One key approach for Oracle is challenging and questioning the certification numbers. Oracle may inquire about how the data was collected and attempt to poke holes in the approach and methodology. Additionally, Oracle may offer “assistance” with a ULA assessment – even if the customer does not want this assistance. This can include the completion of spreadsheets and running of scripts. These, of course, may expose instances where Oracle is not convinced that the software is truly “installed AND running” and/or expose other compliance risks.
Even if a customer does manage to get through the certification phase and manages to close out the ULA process, if Oracle is not satisfied, then Oracle’s License Management Services (LMS) may decide to invoke their audit rights and initiate a formal license audit of the customer’s entire environment. Not a fun outcome.
If you need assistance at any stage of a ULA from our team of ex-Oracle LMS personnel, reach out to us for a consultation.