Organization Mitigates Potential $4.5M Oracle Licensing Risk
Scenario
A organization operating within a sensitive sector with a heavy reliance on Oracle database technology, invested in a Certero SAM Managed Service to give them full visibility, clarity and control over all Oracle technology in use.
Although familiar with Oracle database licensing, the customer lacked the deeper expertise to be confidently in control of potentially costly exposures with the vendor, and so drew upon Certero’s licensing experts to make sure they were not at risk.
Company Profile
Customer: Sensitive Sector
Estate: 7000 devices
Product: Certero for Oracle,
Certero SAM Managed Service for Oracle
The Certero Solution
Certero’s Technology-Led Services approach meant that the Certero for Oracle solution was implemented to underpin the SAM Managed Service delivered by Certero’s in-house SAM services team. This unique approach provides two distinct benefits over the traditional way that SAM services are delivered through multiple partners:
- The customer simply has one SAM partner to work with who is responsible for harmoniously delivering both the underlying technology and value output of the SAM service – no conflicts, no delays, no added complexity or disparity between technology and services suppliers.
- The customer has full access to all of the live and valuable IT hardware, software and software licensing information and insights through the Certero solution deployed. Everyone is able to work to the same understanding of the IT landscape.
The Identification of Licensing Risk
Using Certero for Oracle alongside an Oracle Managed service, the organization was able to avoid a potential multi-million-dollar compliance risk within their Oracle database estate.
The potential exposure was caused by a lack of expertise and understanding by the customer, who felt they were competent with Oracle database licensing but had overlooked the finer points of Oracle’s Special-Use licensing. Products deployed within a virtualization environment that was believed to have been ‘free’, had been configured incorrectly which created the potential need for full-use licensing purchases, covering a lot of cores and related expenditure.
This scenario was a prime example of a customer believing they were compliant and doing the right thing when they were in fact open to potential financial risk.
Certero’s Oracle consultants are able to identify this type of exposure with their enhanced knowledge of usage rights and associated licensing. So again, if you have the expertise on your side you can identify and correct an otherwise extremely costly error.
Risk Mitigation
Certero’s Oracle consultants were able to help the customer understand how to correctly configure their Database estate using Certero for Oracle to detect, analyze and inform their license position.
Over the course of six months, the customer’s potential exposure dropped by $4.5m.
Certero consultants worked with the customer’s DBAs to adjust their database configuration to meet Oracle’s licensing policies and keeping them within licensing limits.
Throughout the process, the customer has been able to track the progress, value and successful risk mitigation through access to the Certero for Oracle reporting dashboards.
