Oracle: Five guaranteed cost-saving initiatives

Mathias Knops, Aspera, says: "The best way to guarantee a cost saving with Oracle is to fully understand your estate. While all other strategies (such as reducing support and optimising licence terms) are valid and important, their overall effectiveness will be limited if you do not have a detailed understanding of your physical Oracle estate."

The worst thing that can happen during an audit, according to Knops,  is to be surprised by your own environment. Yet it is very common for this to happen, particularly with virtualisation. He adds: "Take, for example, the Standard edition database licence, which can only run on a server with no more than four CPU sockets. If you virtualise this server across a number of physical machines, you immediately come out of compliance. You must then license the whole physical layer, which requires upgrading to the Enterprise licence. Ouch. Bottom line: if you’re armed with the right information about your estate when negotiating your licence, you can choose the right licences and lower your costs at the start – and avoid nasty surprises!"

The ITAM Review is running an Oracle licensing seminar on Friday 21 November - http://www.itassetmanagement.net/2014/09/22/oracle-seminar/