Forth Ports contacted Xynomix about an upcoming licensing review conducted by LMS. Forth Ports wanted to ensure they reviewed in flying colours and confirm that they had the correct licenses in place. They wanted to understand if there were any shortfalls, and if so, iron them out. Xynomix suggested completing an Oracle estate review, to understand the Forth Ports estate and what licenses they currently have.
The Oracle Estate review enabled Xynomix to get a complete understanding of the number of servers, the number of processors, if they had a hypervisor and what Oracle licenses they were running. Once this was completed, we were able to review and compare the licenses they have purchased relating to the estate, versus what Oracle features were being utilised.
Xynomix uncovered multiple areas that could be improved and made several recommendations. We suggested pinning some of the cores on the server and allocating licenses to those cores. Providing better value on the licenses by improving the form factor of the licenses.
We were able to validate that the current estate had the correct number of licenses. Furthermore, we confirmed that the features were all suitably licensed. This confirmed that Forth Ports had the correct number of licenses for their estate.
We assisted Forth Ports throughout the next 12 months of discussions and documentation that LMS required. We provided advice and assistance where needed to move this license review forward, as this can be quite a complicated process.
As part of one of the LMS forms, it asked if Forth Ports were part of, or belonged to any subsidiary companies. Forth Ports confirmed that this was the case and therefore submitted the details to Oracle. Oracle then came back to confirm that the estate was correctly licensed but there was a discrepancy with the holding company. In the Oracle agreement, there was no mention of the subsidiary companies that Forth Ports has, so Xynomix assisted Forth Ports with the discussion around this point.
It transpired that because Forth Ports had not declared the subsidiaries, the other parts of the group were in breach of the Oracle License agreement. This resulted in a £2.5M bill from Oracle for the discrepancy in the licenses that the other parts of the organisation were not licensed to use. Xynomix had several discussions with Oracle to understand how we could help negotiate an agreement to resolve this extremely anxious situation for our client.
Oracle proposed that if Forth Ports were to purchase a substantial amount of cloud credits, then this fine could be written off. Forth Ports would never use these cloud credits so Xynomix took over the negotiation, which resulted in a discounted deal for some new Oracle Hardware (ODA’s). As the Forth Ports system was already over 5 years old then it made sense to implement a solution that would benefit Forth Ports.
Xyomix also discussed which licenses could be converted from NUP’s to Processor licenses to enable Forth Ports to change their database configuration. Xynomix managed to take a £2.5M bill and negotiate with Oracle to agree to a product sale that would benefit Forth Ports who were looking to upgrade their system. The agreements were all amended, and the subsidiaries were added into the Oracle agreement. This meant that all subsidiaries could use all Forth Ports licenses.
They came to the right people.
Licensing can be a minefield, Xynomix has years of licencing experience and is best placed to provide guidance and advice. There have been many customers where we have saved thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of pounds by completing these estate reviews.
In conclusion, by completing the initial estate review it allowed Xynomix to advise on the Oracle estate. This in turn gave us power throughout our negotiation and allowed for a strong resolution for the customer.
Xynomix would recommend an estate review to all customers running Oracle databases. Licensing can be a minefield, Xynomix has years of licencing experience and is best placed to provide guidance and advice. There have been many customers where we have saved thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of pounds by completing these estate reviews. Coupled with providing advice and assistance to ensure that you do not get caught short with your Oracle licenses.
