Top 5 Ways to Save on Oracle Now (FYE May)

Ahh, May. The month itself is named after Maia, the Greek goddess of Spring - and it's easy to see why. In the emerald month of May, life begins anew as the grass turns green, new leaves come out on the trees, and flowers bloom. It is the season of hope, optimism, and renewal. Oops, did I just say renewal?

Oh, that's right, May is also Oracle's fiscal year-end, and the busiest month of the year for your beloved Oracle reps as they scramble to sell new business and process your most recent hostage invoices (otherwise known as your annual maintenance service & support renewals). Instead of enjoying the greening of the great outdoors, many clients are stuck facing the blood-red prospects of death by a thousand cuts thanks to their most recent Oracle renewal. Despite the prospects of an outright assault on your senses, this is the best time of the year to harvest value from your Oracle estate, so sharpen up your knives and prepare for battle.

Here are five possible ways to reduce costs on Oracle this May:

1. Terminate Licenses: Evaluate your licenses to determine what is used vs. unused, and where applicable, consider terminating the underlying license which will eliminate your usage grant, but will also eliminate the underlying support cost. This is not as uncommon as it might seem. Most client organizations suffer from 30% shelfware, and although many of the avenues for economic relief are purposely blocked by Oracle, creative thinkers can often find ways to overcome these hurdles, and cost savings can be achieved, especially if we are engaged to help you.

2. Cancel Support: There may be certain circumstances where you do not want to terminate the license itself and lose the usage grant, rather you want to keep using the software, but you may not benefit from the annual maintenance and support services. This may create an opportunity to cancel support (but retain the license). When you cancel support, you lose the right to upgrade the license in the future (product upgradability) and you also lose access to technical support (break/fix), but you retain the ability to use the software. Be sure this fits your needs before canceling. There are other conditions that limit your ability to do this, so tread carefully - or better yet, engage us to help you.

3. Outsource Support Services: Oracle charges ridiculously high fees for its annual maintenance and support services and also charges support on purchased but unused software. Third-party support providers such as Rimini Street, Spinnaker Support, and Support Revolution - among others offer technical break/fix support (not product upgradability), but they also generally support your customizations (Oracle does not), so if you have a sunsetting application or a highly customized deployment that is not going to be upgraded for more than 3 years, third party support may be a viable option for you. Not only will most third-party support providers offer a 50% reduction in support costs, they will also do that on the software you actually use. If you're paying $1M per year in support, and you have 30% shelfware, it's likely you only have $700k of supported software in use, which means you could get support services from a third-party support provider for around $350k (65% reduction in cost).

4. Optimize Oracle's Cloud: If your business uses Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), make sure you optimize your consumption. Most client organizations significantly over-provision, resulting in unused and under-utilized services that cost you significantly more than you need to consume. The OCI feature that allows you to track your cloud spend by project, service, region, compartment, and tag - and allows you to forecast future spending to help you plan and budget more effectively - is called Cost Analysis.

Pro Tip:
Cost Analysis is available in the OCI Console and can be accessed from the navigation menu. You can view your spending data as a chart or table and export your data to a CSV file for further analysis or reporting. With Cost Analysis, you can gain a deeper understanding of your cloud costs and take actions to optimize your spending.

5. Consider using open-source alternatives: Oracle software can be expensive, so consider using open-source alternatives for some applications where appropriate. This can help you save money on licensing costs while still meeting your business needs. There are many good open-source alternatives that offer similar features and functions such as:
  • PostgreSQL: highly scalable and customizable database system that can handle large and complex data sets.
  • MySQL: Fast, reliable, and easy-to-use relational database management system widely used for web applications and other types of software.
  • MariaDB: Community-driven, open-source fork of MySQL that was created in response to concerns over the direction of MySQL after its acquisition by Oracle.

Call to Action

If you have Oracle it is extremely likely you are paying too much and we can help you pay less. Contact us today to learn more about how we can help you save 13-53% on all your technology investments, including those with Oracle. Oracle’s May Fiscal Year-End is fast approaching, making this the best time to capture value, so Act Now.

At a bare minimum, everyone should at least Price-Benchmark their Oracle proposal, renewal, and/or existing agreement. NET(net) can benchmark your Oracle deal in a matter of minutes and show you how much you can save.

Or, Sign up now for a Savings Cloud subscription on Oracle, and we will get started right away to help you minimize costs and risks, and maximize the realization of value and benefit.

Summary

To successfully negotiate with Oracle, you need:

  • A federated view of the market to understand the art of the possible.
  • Substantial buy-side knowledge and subject matter expertise to develop a plan of action that overlays the potential opportunities for value capture onto your specific environment and use cases, including, but not limited to, your business requirements, your infrastructure, your user demographics, and your consumption patterns among other considerations.
  • Deep supply-side commercial expertise to model the various deal permutations to demonstrate what actions offer the highest yield of savings and benefits.

The entire Oracle ecosystem of VARs, consultants, and systems integrators are all motivated to maximize costs and minimize value, so you also need a fierce client advocate who shares your values to help you pay the lowest total amount to get the most amount of value. With NET(net), you get the right blend of technical, commercial, and contractual knowledge in a partner that is exclusively committed to you.

NET(net) has the information you need, offers the experience you want, and delivers the performance you deserve to help you minimize cost and risk and maximize the realization of value and benefit.

About NET(net)

Founded in 2002, NET(net) is the world’s leading IT Investment Optimization firm, helping clients find, get, and keep more economic and strategic value in their technology supply chains. Over the last 20 years, NET(net) has influenced trillions of investment, captured hundreds of billions of value, and has helped clients cost and value optimize XaaS, Cloud, Hardware, Software, Services, Healthcare, Outsourcing, Infrastructure, Telecommunications, and other areas of IT spend. NET(net) has the experience you want, the expertise you need, and delivers the performance you demand and deserve. Contact us at info@netnetweb.com, visit us online at www.netnetweb.com, or call us at +1 (616) 546-3100 to see if we can help you capture more value in your IT investments, agreements, deployments, and relationships.

NET(net)’s Website/Blogs/Articles and other content is subject to NET(net)’s legal terms, offered for general information purposes only, and while NET(net) may offer views and opinions regarding the subject matter, such views and opinions are not intended to malign or disparage any other company or other individual or group.

Read similar posts below