Oracle Unlimited License Agreement (ULA) Overview

TABLE OF CONTENT

Definition

An Unlimited License Agreement (ULA) is a time-based contract for unlimited use for a subset of Oracle products. At the end of the term, the customer may choose to renew the ULA (for the same or different conditions, term, products, or entities); Or declare and certify usage to Oracle (to end the ULA). If the customer chooses not to renew, licenses will be assigned based on the customer’s current usage and certified at the end date of the ULA.

Benefits

The Oracle ULA has advantages for the following cases:

Clients who have unpredictable growth where the cost of a one-by-one purchase results in missing the benefits of large-scale deal discount.
A client who is experiencing huge non-compliance status from multiple Oracle programs and looking to absorb the non-compliance with Unlimited licensing.

Downsides

The disadvantages of the ULA are:

The Client will lose the ownership of ALL licenses acquired prior to the ULA. As per the ULA, the client will have the right to use those licenses for the term of the ULA only unless it was properly certified at the end of the ULA. “Very Critical”.
The Client will have to go through a costly certification process to recertify licenses at the end of the ULA. Certification process is costly due to the number of skilled experts required to complete the process.
The client will have to pay for all support contracts as they will be consolidated into one single contract. This will include the payment of all items including any out-of-support programs.

Main Pitfalls

At the end of the ULA, the following summarizes the ULA risk and pitfall factors:

(Time) Underestimating the time and resources required to conduct a proper internal evaluation.
(Policies) Insufficient understanding of existing and new updated restrictions within Oracle contracts, policies, and agreements.
(Technical) Common mistakes in implementing, authorizing, and configuring Oracle packaged programs regarding their technical and licensing aspects.
(Methodology) Lack of awareness of the Oracle’s Standard Methodology of deactivating and uninstalling unused or unwanted Oracle applications and technology.

Reference

For more information please Oracle Website

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