SAM firm lashes out at Oracle licensing

Concorde Solutions claims vendor's licence structures are 'complex and non-transparent'

Software asset management (SAM) firm Concorde Solutions has lashed out at Oracle's "complex and non-transparent" licensing structure, claiming customers often end up paying over the odds for the vendor's wares.

The firm said that Oracle's flurry of acquisitions over the past decade has left customers confused over licences and that new tech such as virtualisation has further muddied the waters.

Oracle has more than 3,000 products which customers find difficult to navigate, the firm said, adding that they risk having to pay unexpected licence fees as a result.

"Oracle licensing is often complex and non-transparent," said Concorde's chief executive Martin Pendergast. "This is especially [apparent] when it comes to virtualisation, which adds a further layer of complexity."

Since the turn of the century, Oracle has made dozens of acquisitions, which Pendergast added has made the firm's already confusing licensing procedure even more difficult to navigate, and potentially more costly.

"Oracle has a long history of acquisitions and as such its licensing and database metrics have changed several times since the early 2000s," he said. "If your contract stems from the early 2000s, then it's highly likely the metrics used to build it are no longer offered by Oracle for new purchases.

"If you're renewing your software, you'd have to buy equivalents under new and possibly more expensive licences."

At the start of last year, SAM firm Licence Dashboard (LD) claimed that using virtualisation tech could mean customers could need up to six times more licences than they think they do, leaving themselves open to hefty non-compliance fines.

Concorde's Pendergast said Oracle's reluctance to support its apps in virtualised environments can also lead to expensive licensing errors.

"VMware has traditionally led the market in virtualisation and is considered as having the best virtualisation technology, but – and it's a big but – Oracle will not support many of its applications in a VMware environment," he said. "Often, businesses excitedly start virtualising only to then have to back out and revert to physical servers. A costly mistake."

Oracle could not be reached for a comment at the time of publication.