Service players feel Oracle heat
Vendor accused of scaring end users away from third-party maintenance providers
Oracle has been accused of using scare tactics and smear campaigns to loosen the channel's hold on the Sun hardware maintenance market.
Since the software giant's acquisition of Sun a year ago, Oracle has made a series of changes to its hardware maintenance policies, which channel sources claim are restricting trade.
These include the scrapping of SunSolve, an online resource that gave end users access to Sun firmware and software patches.
The site was replaced in December with My Oracle Support and is now only accessible to customers with a hardware maintenance contract with the vendor.
Since January, end users that use third-party maintenance providers and then decide to use Oracle's support services have to pay a fee..
According to the US trade body the Service Industry Association (SIA) the changes have been designed to deliberately discourage customers from turning to third-party providers.
Speaking to ChannelWeb, SIA executive director Claudia Betzner said: "Oracle has said it introduced the changes to ensure end users are receiving the best care possible. But an independent service organisation (ISO) will provide as good, and often better, level of service at a much lower cost than Oracle."
A UK-based Sun maintenance provider, who asked not to be named, accused the vendor of trying to scare customers into using its support services.
"There have been instances where customers have been told that they will be in breach of compliance regulations because they are using third-party providers and do not have access to security updates," the source said.
"It will backfire on them because customers do not respond well to these tactics or having their right to choose taken away."
Betzner claimed Oracle's "anti-competitive actions" were financially motivated and geared towards acquiring a larger slice of the highly lucrative maintenance market.
As a result, the SIA has written to the European Union, as well as the US government, to force Oracle to change its policies.
"This is a global campaign and we are going to be stepping up our efforts from April to ensure a fairer deal for ISOs," she added.
An Oracle representative said the firm was unable to comment "at this stage".