Kristin Burnham, CIO.com, 04/30/2018 When software vendor auditors push too far, enterprise technology leaders must be prepared to push back. In an extreme case, the food company Mars (best known for Snickers and M&M’s candies) filed a lawsuit petitioning the court to order Oracle’s auditors to back off. Following the initial “license review” order from Oracle in…
Of the many complex licensing arrangements Oracle offers to its customers, none seem to generate as much confusion and consternation as the Unlimited License Agreement (“ULA”). For companies that have already determined that they are not going to renew their ULAs with Oracle, the following are a few guidelines to follow to minimize the risks…
Julie Machal-Fulks, The ITAM Review, 12/06/2017 Increasingly, companies are considering outsourcing datacenter workloads to third-party hosted or cloud environments. Software publishers like Oracle are not only publishing guidance on how to count licenses that are installed in a third-party cloud environment, Oracle is also offering its own cloud solutions to customers. Although moving the Oracle…
Over the last several years, more and more Oracle customers are receiving notices that they have been selected for an Oracle license review or software audit that it reviews the license position of all of its customers worldwide. That means if your company has not participated in a software license review with Oracle, the odds…
If your business receives an inquiry from Oracle requesting that you complete an Oracle Server Worksheet, you should proceed with caution. Answering the question without consulting a licensing expert and carefully evaluating the relevant license agreements can result in increased licensing fees, possible audits, and penalties. Before responding to an Oracle inquiry, it is important…
Oracle’s “Technology” software products (such as its WebLogic and Database programs) are very popular products. Unfortunately, as we have explained numerous times here, Oracle’s license agreements and compliance practices entail numerous pitfalls for unwary users of those products. Being caught in one of those pitfalls can result in substantial, unforeseen expenses following an audit by…
