Oracle ULA - the cinderalla contract

An Oracle ULA can be a golden chariot, or a pumpkin, depending on how it is managed!

Many organisations sign an Unlimited Licensing Agreement (ULA) with Oracle as a result of an audit.  When companies are out of compliance by a large amount, Oracle will position the ULA as the magic solution to make that go away and give the client the possibility to deploy an unlimited quantity of the products in the agreement.   

Many clients then forget all about the ULA for a couple of years until the contract is about to expire, at which point they are not in a position to maximise the agreement, or even to judge whether they will be compliant upon leaving the agreement, so, to Oracle's delight, they renew the ULA agreement.

Before signing a ULA you need to assess the ROI, to determine how to get the most out of this agreement?  A ULA should not be considered as a software licence, it should be a project - managed from end to end, across the organisation (Procurement, Legal, IT Architecture, DBAs, Sysadmins).  Otherwise, you will be scrambling at the end of the agreement to try to get some value from it and may be forced into a renewal against your original intention. 

If managed correctly, the ULA gives the client the possibility to obtain a large number of licences from Oracle.    The emphasis is on managing it correctly.

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