When it comes to product licensing, Oracle can be one of the most confusing to deal with. With a slue of products and features available at high and low price points, one must be prudent about the Oracle product and license they require now and in the future. Not only can having the wrong license cost your organization money, but a lot of time cleaning up the mess. Here are some common questions about Oracle licensing and products.
What Are The Common Oracle Products?
There are several Oracle products to choose from, each with their own licensing. The common products are:
- Oracle Enterprise Edition
- Oracle Standard Edition
- Oracle Standard Edition One
- Oracle PE
- Oracle XE
- Oracle Enterprise Manager
- Oracle Application Server
What Exactly Is A ‘License’?
A license for a product, including Oracle products, is essentialy the Right To Use (RTU) the software. For instance, if you obtained a copy of Microsoft Office (which most of use are familiar with) you can download the software to your computer, yet you cannot use it without a license or ‘key’. Oracle on the other hand does not use software or license keys, and it’s up to the organization to use the proper licensing. If they don’t Oracle could audit the organization and choose to bring penalties against them.
What Are The Differences In The Oracle Products & Cost?
- Oracle Enterprise Edition is the most expensive and most robust/comprehensive database edition
- Oracle Standard Edition is very similarly priced to Microsoft SQL Server, and can only be licensed on servers or clusters with a maximum capacity of 4 processor sockets
- Oracle Standard Edition One can only be licensed on servers with a max capacity of 2 processor sockets, yet is generally less expensive than SQL Server
- Oracle PE is a full-featured and low cost Oracle DB, however, it is restricted to one user per database. The license does allow developers to make use of the Enterprise Edition features
- Oracle XE is completely free yet limited to one database
- Oracle Enterprise Manager DB and Grid control is free, yet needs to be licensed for each CPU being monitored
- Oracle Application Server (Standard Edition One) can only be licensed on servers with a max capacity of 2 processor cores
Are Oracle Licenses Valid For All Products?
Most times an Oracle license is valid for all products and is not tied specifically to one version of the particular product. However, you will not be entitled to update to new versions without a proper maintenance or support agreement.
Is There An Extensive List Of License Definitions and Rules Out There?
Absolutely. As we said before Oracle has one of the more complex licensing rules and users can often become confused as to whether they have the proper license. The link below will provide an extensive list of rules and definitions regarding Oracle licensing.
Oracle Licensing and Rules Guide (PDF)
How Can Oracle Licenses Be Obtained?
There are several ways to obtain an Oracle license. One way is to speak directly with Oracle. You can also speak with licensed resellers or Oracle Gold Partners such as Neovera. Neovera can make sense of the complex licensing rules and make sure your organization is compliant and uses the needed products. Neovera provides the following:
- Assessment of your Oracle technology assets
- Upgrade schedules
- Product and solution roadmaps
- Compliance and security of assets
- Expert support of your Oracle systems
- 24×7 monitoring and management services