This article about Itanium reminded me that the most strategic decision CIOs make regarding Oracle is where to run databases. Admittedly, my experience with Itanium years before Oracle announced desupport was consoling unhappy customers through support issues. Had Mark Hurd stayed at HP and IBM acquired Sun I suspect Oracle would have continued supporting Itanium for years to come. As the saying goes, a house divided cannot stand, and Oracle continues to rake in piles of cash from Oracle running on HP-UX.
Category Archive: Cost Reduction
The Best Platform For Oracle Databases
How IBM Wins With DB2, Part 2
This was my reaction to DB2 9.7 nearly two years ago. My sentiment then and now is that the competitive success of DB2 is a matter of offering flexible, predictable contract terms. As a side note, I never doubted that IBM could simplify migrations to DB2 from Oracle. What I still question is whether customers can actually reduce costs by doing so.
The math is straightforward. If a customer will spend $5M on Oracle software support across five years, then IBM has to offer a value equation that cuts that to $4M, including net new licensing, support, migration services and staff training.
Asset Discovery
The first step in Oracle Optimization is to understand what is running in the data center. Many organizations, however, do not have asset records that are readily available or accurate. It is often necessary to scan the network for what products are in use. Oracle presents a challenge in that its software is freely available online, does not require keys and installs extra-cost options automatically.
There are various options for discovering assets ranging from open-source to enterprise software packages, each appropriate depending on size, complexity and need. I can provide asset discovery services, Enterprise Manager (12c) mentoring, or if necessary, broker discussions with tools providers that fit your budget and scope.
Oracle Exadata and NetApp
… It is vital to understand the Oracle licensing implications of NetApp solutions to understand how they can actually lower costs …
It’s not enough to buy one Exadata box. You kind of need three: one for production, another for standby and a third for development activities. This is because Oracle Exadata does not offer array mirroring and best practices dictate that development/test/QA be identical to–but not reside on–production servers. The result is copious amounts of Oracle that many can’t afford, not to mention how such licensing contracts marry you to Oracle’s technical support policies.
Oracle Cloud and Declining Revenues
Two noteworthy articles about Oracle’s cloud strategy were published recently by The Register and Forbes. Forbes posits that Oracle’s tepid revenue growth is due to competing cloud offerings. The work I do puts me in the middle of Oracle-related decisions so my perspective is different. While cloud deals with Amazon and Salesforce.com may be taking a bite out of Oracle, I would argue that a more meaningful dynamic is at play.
The Year Over Year Cumulative Graph
A powerful moment in my work is when the various options for deploying Oracle are presented from a financial perspective, specifically via Costimizer’s Year Over Year Cumulative graph. A mountain of data is dumped into the tool, resulting in a graph such as this (solution names changed to protect the expensive options).
Enterprise Edition versus Standard Edition
There is no doubt that Enterprise Edition Database offers superior functionality that many applications and administrators shan’t live without. I wrote about this nearly two years ago when UNIX manufacturers started dropping prices and core counts increased across all chip types, including IBM Power7.
Introducing the Oracle Costimizer Beta Program
I’m looking for beta testers of software that helps organizations reduce the cost of running Oracle.
The Oracle Costimizer is inspired by the reality that most organizations struggle to manage their Oracle assets effectively, let alone set themselves on a path towards savings. Does that remind you of your own organization?
Features of the “Costimizer” include automated compliance analysis, financial modelling of alternative deployments and maintenance renewal discount analysis. It is 100% web-based, cross-browser and drag-and-drop enabled. Both deployment and CSI data may be uploaded via CSV file, and future-state modelling is enabled via the Oracle product catalog and SPECint results for server comparisons.
Please contact me directly for more details on how to participate.
Architecture and Design
It’s difficult (i.e. nearly impossible) to save money on Oracle without changing how you’ve deployed its products. License-friendly scenarios for consolidation, virtualization, high availability, disaster recover, downgrading to Standard Edition, outsourcing, cloud, etc., must be seriously considered for future-state. This is especially true after a decade of marketing against expensive UNIX machinery towards adoption of extra-cost Enterprise Edition options designed for Lintel pizza boxes.
Oracle is smarter than to let its customers simply reshuffle annual maintenance fees, cancel/rebuy expensive contracts, negotiate multi-year support in exchange for better discounts, etc. The bottom line is that Oracle doesn’t need to offer or allow any of this. In other words, saving money on Oracle is hard work and requires someone with technical experience to create alternatives that reduce costs without risking business continuity.
Call (888) 620-9832 or email to inquire about saving money on Oracle via these services:
- Free 30-minute Consultation
- Asset Discovery
- Entitlement and Gap Analysis
- Compliance Risk Mitigation
- Software Asset Management
- Architecture and Design
- TCO Modeling
- Consolidation and Migration Planning
- Vendor Negotiation
- Training and Workshops