How do you license Oracle Software in the cloud?

First off, you need to work with Oracle’s approved vendors.  It is a short list that includes:

• Amazon Web Services’ Elastic Compute Cloud
• Amazon Simple Storage Service
• Microsoft Windows Azure Platform

Using these cloud providers, you would need to count the virtual cores you are using as a physical core.  It does not matter what Oracle software or program you are using on a particular processor metric.

Standard Edition One and Standard Edition

For Oracle’s Standard Edition and Standard Edition One software, you will be licensing based on how big the instance is.  If you have four or less virtual cores running on your Amazon ECC, Amazon SSS or Windows Azure environment, then these will be considered as one socket, which is equivalent to one processor license.

If you are using more than four virtual cores, you will need to divide the number of virtual cores by four, then round it up to the closest multiple of four.  That will be the number of sockets that you would need to license.

For example, if you have 15 virtual cores, you would need to pay enough for four licenses.

And you can only license Oracle Standard Edition Software if you are using 16 or less virtual cores in an instance.  For Standard Edition One, the licensing policy limits you to only 8 or less virtual cores.

Illustration of Licensing Policies

Illustrations might help you understand these licensing policies.  So take for example you are using Oracle Database Standard Edition on Amazon Web Services’ Elastic Compute Cloud. For instances with less than five virtual cores, you will need one processor license for your Oracle Database Standard Edition.  For instances using five to eight virtual cores, you would need two processor licenses.  But if you are using four single virtual core instances and a 4-virtual core instance, you would need to get five processor licenses to cover for the total of eight virtual cores and five instances that you are using.  That would be equal to one processor license for each of the instances you have.

If you are using Oracle Database Enterprise Edition on Microsoft Windows Azure and other approved vendors, and you have one instance of eight virtual cores, you would need licenses for eight virtual cores as each virtual core is considered to be a physical core.  You would need to use the Oracle licensing multiplier to get the number of licenses you need.  In this case, you would need to get four processor licenses for your database.

Confused? Four Cornerstone can help and simplify things for you!

Well, you have to admit that it can get perplexing as you use more cloud service providers and more Oracle software.  But you really do not have to scratch your head in frustration.  All you have to do is call Four Cornerstone!

Four Cornerstone has a team of Oracle licensing experts who can very well help you figure out what software you need and how many licenses you need to buy. You’ll save money in the long run.  And the good news is, we are just a phone call away, ensuring that you stop worrying about your Oracle licenses right now!

Photo courtesy of Leo Reynolds.