Oracle customers fear Oracle licensing gotchas with AWS and Azure

Big companies that use Oracle software know they want to move that software to the cloud, but have some fear of Oracle's reaction if they don't choose the cloud, according to a new survey of 300 IT professionals.

The survey was conducted by Apps Associates, an IT services company with fame requirements, to help businesses move their Oracle apps to the Amazon cloud, Amazon Web Services. App Associates is both a leading Oracle partner and an AWS partner. (It's also a Salesforce partner.)

The company spoke to 300 IT professionals in large corporations (those with annual revenues between $ 100 million and $ 5 billion) who still use Oracle applications that aren't hosted in the cloud.

Two-thirds (59%) said they are planning to move these apps to the cloud this year, and nearly a third (32%) said they felt they should have done so already. Only about 7% said they needed to move the apps but didn't start planning.

There are good reasons why the companies move slowly when switching these systems to the cloud. Businesses run their businesses on Oracle databases, and they worry about everything from downtime to lost data to open up to hackers.

But the biggest concern the companies had to pull their feet was, according to the survey, a fear that they would trigger "an audit" from Oracle if they chose an Oracle competitor like the Amazon AWS to be their cloud supplier.

The dreaded audit is when Oracle examines how a company uses its software. If Oracle finds out that the company has violated its software license agreement, Oracle may slam its customer with large fees and other threats, such as the final permission to use the software.

And the terms of Oracle's contract, like other major business providers, are notoriously complicated. In fact, there is a whole consulting industry called software asset management that helps companies negotiate software contracts and combat audits and audit fees from Oracle and others (including Microsoft, SAP, IBM).

Two-thirds worry about Oracle gotchas

Companies race to use the cloud for as much of their IT as they can these days, and Oracle has spoken up its own cloud as both the company's future and the nemesis of the AWS.

Amazon has targeted targeted Oracle customers trying to show them to their own cloud. It has been especially trying to get them to include their Oracle applications and ditch their Oracle database to use Amazon versions instead.

But Oracle's cloud is far behind the Amazon and Microsoft's market share, and the supported market research says many companies prefer competitors to Oracle's cloud.

Nevertheless, before Oracle began to see Amazon as a threat, Oracle collaborated with Amazon. It approved the Amazon cloud for selling some versions of its Oracle database, as well as some of its other older apps.

More importantly, it also allows Oracle customers to move their existing Oracle applications, databases, and data to Amazon's cloud in an Oracle program called Bring Your Own License (BYOL). Oracle does the same for Microsoft Azure. Azure is also authorized to run Oracle apps under BYOL.

Nevertheless, in this survey, 58% said they were very or a little concerned that their licenses would not remain valid if they moved to a non-Oracle cloud.

More than half of ITDMs (55%) were concerned that moving to a non-Oracle cloud would increase the chances of an audit. Almost half concerned that if they moved to the cloud, Oracle will no longer provide technical support to them. Technical support usually includes troubleshooting when things go wrong and provide updates and security updates.

This though Oracle confirmed in January 2017 that both AWS and Microsoft are "authorized" clouds for their apps.

So App Associates points out that despite the pressure that Oracle customers may feel about having to use Oracle's cloud, it is not entirely true that they cannot use their Oracle software with AWS.

But there is a big warning: There may be hidden terms in their Oracle contract that allows Oracle to revise them.

App Associates recommends customers to pore over the contract and find out the goths when using a rivals cloud.

Of course it's easier said than done.

The Oracle AWS campaign can be a "trap"

One of the most famous Oracle software manager consultants says Oracle deliberately makes its contracts vague and difficult, giving it the upper hand.

Craig Guarente, CEO of Palisade Compliance used to be an Oracle Exec who conducted audits and now lives in helping Oracle's customers defend themselves against them .

Oracle recently launched a campaign that promises to cut customers' bills in half if I switch from AWS to Oracle's cloud.

But Guarente calls the campaign a "trap", he wrote in a recent blog post.

He says that Oracle can use the offer to investigate how they have used Oracle on AWS's cloud under BYOL.

"Since Oracle contracts are so unclear, you basically give Oracle sales the ability to scare you into thinking you can have a compliance problem," says Guarente. In addition, Oracle can also charge its customers new fees if they moves to Oracle's cloud.

To judge by Guarente's comments at least, Oracle customers are not dissatisfied with worrying about Oracle's reaction if they move to AWS or Azure, but that doesn't mean that

Oracle did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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