Oracle database licensing. Where most audit value lives.

Two editions. Very different deals.

Standard Edition 2 is licensed per socket, capped at two sockets per server, and supports a defined subset of features. Enterprise Edition is licensed per processor with the Oracle core factor table, supports the full feature set, and is the foundation for the options and packs catalogue.

The downgrade from EE to SE2 is one of the most overlooked savings opportunities in the Oracle estate. It requires careful workload analysis and is feasible far more often than Oracle account teams suggest.

RAC, partitioning, in memory.

• Real Application Clusters at 23,000 dollars per processor list
• Partitioning at 11,500 dollars per processor list
• Advanced Compression at 11,500 dollars per processor list
• Database In Memory at 23,000 dollars per processor list
• Active Data Guard at 11,500 dollars per processor list
• Diagnostics and Tuning packs at 7,500 dollars per processor list combined

Options are licensed at the same processor count as the underlying database. They are also the single largest source of LMS audit findings, because Oracle scripts detect accidental use even when the feature is not deliberately enabled.

Oracle's soft partitioning claim.

Oracle's policy states that VMware is soft partitioning, which Oracle does not recognise as a way to limit licence count. Under Oracle's position, every host in a vMotion cluster must be licensed for Oracle database, not just the hosts running the database.

This is policy, not contract. It is also one of the most aggressive audit claims Oracle makes. There are defensible architectural and contractual paths to limit the exposure. We have negotiated dozens of them.

Right size the stack. Negotiate the price.

Our database licence work starts with a deployment count. We map every database to a host, every host to a processor count using the Oracle core factor table, and every database to the actual features in use. From that map we identify the right edition, the right options, and the right pack scope.

From the right scope we negotiate the price. Database deals at scale are where Oracle's discount structure has the most flex, and where buyer side counsel pays for itself many times over.

• Deployment count and core factor reconciliation
• Edition right sizing analysis
• Option and pack usage scan
• VMware and virtualisation exposure modelling
• Negotiated discount on net new and renewal