In August, Oracle Verified Solution for Databases was released for SAM on Snow Atlas, a new feature allowing organizations to generate output files in .zip format which contain information about existing hardware, Oracle Databases, Database Options and management packs software and the virtualization technology if present. The .zip file is created based on Oracle-defined specifications and can be generated using Snow tools instead of using Oracle collection tools.

In addition to the Databases solution, several enhancements were made to the “All Java installations” report, with additional columns for Architecture, Installation Status, Home Path and Reason messaging added. A new column selector with several new columns has also been implemented.

The Oracle Verified Solution for Fusion Middleware was released on Snow Atlas in September, extending Oracle Verified Data functionality with Fusion Middleware Products data. This allows users to generate output files regarding existing WebLogic Server, visibility for Oracle Business Intelligence, Oracle Forms and Reports, Oracle SOA Suite, Oracle Tuxedo, Oracle Web Center and Oracle Internet Application Server Installations.

SAM on Snow Atlas also gained visibility for five additional Oracle Fusion Middleware products in September, with visibility into Oracle Business Intelligence, Oracle Forms and Reports, Oracle SOA Suite, Oracle Tuxedo, Oracle Web Center and Oracle Internet Application Server.

In October, the Oracle Verified Solution for Java SE was also made available on SAM on Snow Atlas, extending Oracle Verified Data functionality with Oracle Java/OpenJDK data. This update also allows for a single output file to include one row per server of all Oracle verified data products (Oracle Databases, Fusion Middleware and Java SE).

These improvements sit on top of the Oracle Global Licensing and Advisory Services (GLAS) Verification of Snow as a verified third-party tool for Oracle Fusion Middleware in January and Oracle Java SE in May, and Oracle Database and Database Options in 2022. This verified code from Snow’s on-premises offering was then added to Snow Atlas, ensuring all Snow customers can access trusted, verified data on their Oracle estate, no matter what Snow offering they rely on.

By adding these verifications to the suite of offerings available on Snow Atlas, customers can have confidence in both the verification of the data as well as the timeliness, as Snow Atlas continuously updates. As more innovations are made available on Snow Atlas, so too will the Oracle portfolio of verified products grow to ensure customers can gain all the data they need directly from their Snow products.

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Out of all the vendors, Oracle licensing can be notoriously complex. Trying to manually manage license allocation across virtual and non-virtual databases can be nearly impossible.

This verification endorses the completeness of Snow data and means that Snow has been verified to provide data sets that Oracle will accept, whenever accurate measurement data is needed, as an alternative to running Oracle’s measuring tools.

In order to be considered for this verification, Oracle performs rigorous testing to ensure that Snow data meets Oracle’s requirements for software licensing information. Snow joins a select list of other Oracle-verified vendors.

Verification improves optimization

Truly understanding your company’s Oracle database usage is a complicated, time-consuming proposition. However, proactive management is a critically important endeavor to manage costs by limiting unnecessary license purchases and minimize the risk of costly vendor non-compliance.

With Oracle verification, our customers can rely on data from the Snow platform to fully evaluate and optimize their Oracle usage. This very same data can also demonstrate compliance during an Oracle audit. The verification allows you to optimize your technology assets, entitlements and agreements in one place while reducing the time required to use Oracle measurement tools for an audit.

“Many of our customers are looking to reduce complexity in their IT environments. By gaining Oracle verification, we hope to help create a more streamlined experience when managing and optimizing usage data for Oracle database and database option solutions.”

CHRISTIAN DEN BOER, Director of Enterprise Applications at Snow Software

It is important to remember that using a tool that has been Oracle verified does not replace an Oracle License Audit or change Oracle’s contractual right to perform one. According to Oracle, the vendor “will still need to analyze usage data gathered from these tools to assess license needs and provide a compliance statement. Usage data gathered from these tools will still need to be analyzed by Oracle to assess license needs and provide the customer with a compliance statement.”

Proactive vendor negotiations

Enterprise IT teams use Snow to determine their full effective license position for every software title and vendor, across client and datacenter services, SaaS and mobile devices. This gives users complete visibility independent of the software maker. In this way, you can optimize your licensing position ahead of vendor contract negotiations, renewals, true-ups or even audits.

With the recent verification from Oracle, Snow data puts you in the driver’s seat if, for example, any discrepancies should appear between your Snow generated data and Oracle’s data. With this information, you can minimize costly non-compliance risks and better manage your budgets.

Snow can help customers maintain an optimized Oracle estate by:

• Providing a consolidated view of all Oracle databases, showing the options installed, how much has been used and highlighting which Management Packs have been enabled/agreed upon.
• Calculating the number of each license type required for Named User Plus licenses or Processor licenses, allowing you to select the most cost-effective option.
• Identifying the licensing implications of virtualization technologies, providing you with a chance to adjust the configuration in order to remain technically effective without using more licenses than necessary under Oracle’s hard and soft partitioning rules.
• Evaluating all Oracle databases technical requirements within the environment, making it more straightforward to understand whether an Enterprise Edition or Standard Edition 2 database is required.

Understanding your Oracle deployment

Oracle licensing is both expensive and multi-faceted. Every configuration variation can lead to significant differences in license exposure. It’s easy to make a mistake.

Snow allows key stakeholders across an organization to understand their Oracle deployment, rightsize their configurations, use the right license metric for the deployment and manage costs. And now with Oracle verification, rest assured knowing that the insights used to base decisions on are accepted by Oracle in the event of a contract negotiation or audit. Learn more about how Snow can help you manage your Oracle environment and control your spend.

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