The Complete Oracle ULA Guide
Customers have a choice of either exiting the ULA by certification or continue with the ULA through a renewal. In either of the ULA Certification or Renewal Process, the phases that need to be followed are:
• Planning and Objectives Analysis Phase
• Deployment, Compliance & Financial Analysis Phase
• Decision & Negotiation Phase
You might be interested in reading our article on ULA Certification Value Realization to understand why the above phases are critical.
A diagram explaining the ULA Certification or Renewal Process is provided below. While this shown sequentially, there are some process that could be carried out in parallel to get clarity before going to the next steps.
This step involves defining what you want to achieve by the end of the ULA term. What are your goals for the ULA End of Term? Once you have a clear understanding of your goals, you can develop a plan to achieve them
The objectives to be looked at are:
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- Compliance
- Certification or Renewal?
- Cost Reduction
- Simplified License Management ?
While many customers may not understand the reasons for this, this may be the single most important decisions you will be taking during the entire process.
Some of the rules of engagement and conversation that need to be looked into are:
- Who is the internal sponsor for the ULA end of term management?
- Who will speak to Oracle and Who will not speak with them.
- What is the information that can be given and what is the information that you should hold back during the negotiations?
- When should you speak to Oracle?
- Who in Oracle should be your point of contact?
This step involves carefully reviewing the terms and conditions of the ULA. It is important to carefully review your ULA contract terms to identify any potential pitfalls or hidden costs.
This is a task that needs to be completed before any action is taken on the deployments or discussions begun with Oracle.
The key terms to be checked for certification and/or renewal are:
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- Product list
- Certification Process
- Environments included or excluded.
- Legal entity definitions
- Merger, Acquisition and Divestiture definitions
- Virtualization and Cloud terms
- License Metrics
- Product Dependencies (if any)
- License Restrictions
- Support Costs
You need to get a good understanding of your future Oracle needs to start developing a plan for your ULA renewal.
Conduct a thorough requirements assessment and document the results. Well-documented license needs will be your core asset in navigating Oracle licensing and negotiating your agreement. This may involve negotiating new terms with Oracle, such as adding or removing software products, adjusting your licensing metrics, or changing your support level.
You might want to read more about our CEO Sheshagiri Anegondi (Sheshu). He is amongst the foremost Oracle License Experts globally.