There is a discussion on Oracle-l that express concerns about
Oracle’s pricing strategy for ongoing maintenance revenues, some
accusing Oracle of forcing a renegotiation of maintenance process if
customers try to save money by dropping support for selected
products.
According to
Thomas Roach, Oracle is reversing deep discounts on maintenance
fees if Oracle customers drop support for selected products:
“We wanted to
drop support for a couple of products, but were told that if we
did that, the other items purchased in the same order would get
bumped to list price and we would have to pay 22% of that for
support.”
Mark Bobak, a senior Oracle DBA at ProQuest in Detroit, notes
that Oracle support is fixed at 22% of the full-list price, and
suggests that Oracle is not being straightforward, flim-flamming
their customers:
“it sounds like
they're trying to flim-flam you by telling you the truth (i.e.
"you'll have to pay 22% of list price!") without telling you
you've always been paying 22% of list price.”
Ongoing maintenance revenue is important to all database vendors,
especially in a mature market, and it’s not uncommon for Oracle to
give discounts on maintenance pricing, but they never guarantee the
costs from year-to-year.
Oracle licensing is
more complicated than ever before, and many shops hire experienced
Oracle license
negotiators to help you negotiate yearly maintenance fees with
Oracle Corporation.
