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| Oracle licensing [message #635327] |
Thu, 26 March 2015 19:35  |
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ora99
Messages: 3
Registered: March 2015
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Junior Member |
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I am trying to determine what the best approach would be, in terms of licensing, for a small group of people (~5 human users) to use an Oracle database with Oracle Data Miner. The purpose would be to load and analyze datasets from external sources. There would be no applications nor any system involved. The data would be from external sources, and loaded into the database, for analysis in the database. There would be no developing of any applications, just analysis of the data using SQL and the Data Miner tool. The database would reside on a networked workstation with only 2 CPU sockets.
It is hard to tell whether this covered by the OTN Developer license:
Oracle grants You a nonexclusive, nontransferable, limited license to internally use the Programs, subject to the restrictions stated in this Agreement, only for the purpose of developing, testing, prototyping, and demonstrating Your application and only as long as Your application has not been used for any data processing, business, commercial, or production purposes, and not for any other purpose.
One would think it wouldn't be covered under the developer license, but I don't know if "application" refers to the technical term "application," meaning a program built with programming languages, or rather, more generically, what "application" means in the English language, ie. your particular use of the database. As in my example there is no application involved. The data was not produced by or through an application and wouldn't be used by an application (in the true sense of the word).
If not, because of the fact that Standard Edition One and Standard Edition don't allow for the Data Mining "extra cost option," it doesn't seem either could be used. Only Enterprise Edition seems like it would be feasible however there is a minimum # of users (25) and is, as a result, cost prohibitive and wasteful in the sense you're paying for more users than you really have (and wouldn't take advantage of most features).
The Personal Edition seems like it is a good approach in many ways, as it allows for all EE features, and is meant for single machines, except for the fact that you can only have one named user. Although this makes me curious, if five different people will be using the database, as long as only one person uses it at any given time (never concurrently with anyone else), would that comply with the license terms?
Assuming the only way is the Enterprise Edition route, has Oracle been known to negotiate at all with companies about contracting for a number of users under the "minimum 25" ordinarily required for EE? I can't see why they would refuse a business paying more for their license (via Enterprise vs. Standard) when the business doesn't even have 25 employees.
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| Re: Oracle licensing [message #635335 is a reply to message #635327] |
Fri, 27 March 2015 02:53  |
John Watson
Messages: 8960
Registered: January 2010
Location: Global Village
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Senior Member |
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The OTN licence is absolutely clear: you cannot use it for any production purpose, which is what you intend to do.
SE does not incude Advanced Analytics, which you need for Data Moning.
So you need PE, one licence for each named user, each installed on only one machine. Or on a shared machine, EE plus Advanced Analytics, minimum 25 user licence.
For a small purchase like this, you might be better off talking to a partner (I work for one  ) rather than to an Oracle sales droid. Partners are sometimes more inventive at finding cost effective solutions.
[Updated on: Fri, 27 March 2015 02:54] Report message to a moderator |
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| Re: Oracle licensing [message #635478 is a reply to message #635327] |
Mon, 30 March 2015 20:48 |
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ora99
Messages: 3
Registered: March 2015
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Junior Member |
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Thanks for the info.
Just a quick follow-up -- in your experience or opinion do you think there is any chance if, dealing with an Oracle partner, we might be able to negotiate the minimum number of users in an EE + AA option purchase down to 5 users (rather than the normal 25) if we can demonstrate that our size and use is, as indicated, very small, and that 25 is impractical and cost prohibitive?
Also to clear up what "named user" means --
(1) If 2 people use the database, but never at the same time (concurrently), would that count as one user?
(2) If an employee gets terminated and/or reassigned, a new employee takes his/her place, could that new employee take the place of the former 'named user'? My concern is, say we have a license for 5 users, if (1) above is not the case, can we at least roll around who the X users are (by name), at some frequency?
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| Re: Oracle licensing [message #635487 is a reply to message #635478] |
Tue, 31 March 2015 01:02 |
John Watson
Messages: 8960
Registered: January 2010
Location: Global Village
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Senior Member |
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Come on, man. First, the minimum is twenty five. And as for named users, first, if two people with names use the product, how many named users do you think that is? And second, you have to be honest (unless you are a criminal). You can't claim that you are constantly hiring and firing staff to avoid paying for what you use.
Overall, what is your problem? This is software that cost millions of man-hours to develop. If you don't want to pay for it, you'll need to find some other solution.
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| Re: Oracle licensing [message #635592 is a reply to message #635487] |
Thu, 02 April 2015 00:07 |
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ora99
Messages: 3
Registered: March 2015
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Junior Member |
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If going below the 25 user minimum isn't negotiable in what ways would a partner be able to find a more cost effective solution? It doesn't seem as though there is any way out of paying for a full 25 users (both database and AA option) if taking the collaborative -- shared machine -- route. I only brought up the possibility of negotiating the user minimum down because you mentioned talking to a partner might lead to more cost effective approaches.
Regarding the named users rotating I was just giving an example. Surely organizations with a couple hundred users won't always have the same couple hundred users indefinitely. I'm curious as to how frequently one's list of users can change (once a year, once every other year, etc.) Obviously it would be absurd if your 25 named users changed every other day but I don't see why every couple years (not necessarily because of employee termination, but shift in job duties) having a slightly different set of 25 people using the database would be unexpected (ex. 1 person takes a job somewhere else, 1 person gets hired in, 2 people transfer out to another division, 2 people transfer in from another division, etc.)
Anyway, I think PE idea may be the only route for now (each person working with it on their own machine). I am curious though, let's say someone has an administration related problem (adding datafiles to a tablespace, expanding the temp tablespace, partitioning a table, etc.) that they themselves cannot work out on their own. So you have to work on the database on their machine and run the needed commands for them. So long as you just do so on a 'support' basis whenever the person runs into trouble, and do not actually use it (their database) for analytics -- and instead use your own machine and database for that (separately licensed) -- would that make you compliant? I don't see how it would be much different from helping someone having a problem with Microsoft Excel where they have the product and you don't. If you use the product on their computer, temporarily, to write a formula or whatever, that they couldn't write, and then leave it up to them thereafter (strictly to support that person) you would obviously not need a Microsoft Excel license yourself. All you did was help a person do something on their machine with their product installed on that machine. You're not sharing it. Personally I would see it in the same light however I don't know how that would be interpreted legally.
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| Re: Oracle licensing [message #635595 is a reply to message #635592] |
Thu, 02 April 2015 01:38 |
John Watson
Messages: 8960
Registered: January 2010
Location: Global Village
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Senior Member |
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A partner, who is not so driven by Oracle licence sales, might find an alternatve solution that does not use Advanced Analytics. Perhaps by using a bit brains intead of money, one could even develop a solution that would run on Standard Edition. For example: if you need partition pruning but can't afford Partitioning, use partitioned views. If you need notifications but don't have the Diagnostics Pack, use Advanced Queueing instead.
As for everything else, it should be obvious to you and to anyone else whether you are trying to reduce your licencing needs by nefarious means. It is a simple matter of business ethics.
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| Re: Oracle licensing [message #685866 is a reply to message #635595] |
Fri, 08 April 2022 02:30 |
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FredrikFilipsson
Messages: 5
Registered: April 2022
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Junior Member |
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You can actually negotiate below the 25... user minimums. Oracle DB EE is licensed as 25 user minimums, however its not unheard of to negotiate to 10 user minimums instead of 25.
But it depends on your Oracle account manager.
However, the OTN agreement is only suitable to apply for companies that are Oracle partners (OPN) and are developing their own ip to resell.
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