Snow Software slashes cost of managing Oracle licenses with new levels of automation

Snow Software, the leading developer of dedicated Software Asset Management (SAM) solutions, launches the Snow Oracle Management Option (Snow OMO) designed to provide organizations with a highly-automated and low-cost solution to manage their expenditure on Oracle licenses.

Oracle licensing is notoriously complicated and organizations historically face either paying expensive Oracle license experts to manually record what software is being used on what hardware, or risking waiting for a vendor audit – both costly and impossible to defend.

Snow OMO is available as an optional module of the industry-leading Snow License Manager solution and helps Oracle customers reduce compliance risks and expenditure by providing full visibility of the various metrics required to accurately determine the organization’s licensing obligations. Examples of data captured by Snow OMO include:

• Installations of Oracle databases – physical and virtual – on all platforms
• Configuration of host hardware and cluster topographies
• Accurate recognition of products and editions (e.g. Standard, Enterprise)
• Identification of hypervisor technologies and server clusters
• Tracking installation and use of Management Packs and Options
• Reporting on user accounts and activity status.

Using information collected and reported by Snow OMO, organizations can proactively reduce Oracle expenditure and risk by:

• Preventing costly enterprise edition software being used where standard editions are sufficient
• Identifying Management Packs to uninstall – reducing risk of accidental use which triggers licensing obligations
• Saving months of manual effort by automating the population of Oracle Server Worksheet
• Monitoring use of Oracle products both within and outside an Unlimited Use Agreement (ULA)
• Deleting unused or expired Named User Accounts
• Identifying full hardware configuration of physical hosts to determine processor license requirements.

Peter Björkman, CTO of Snow Software, explained why Snow OMO is important to Oracle users: “On a single four-processor server, the cost difference between running a standard and enterprise edition of an Oracle database could easily be $120,000. Plus, an organization could inadvertently activate one or more management packs – installed by default on enterprise editions – which could cost another $50,000.

“For most organizations, an Oracle Server Worksheet is difficult to populate and only done during an audit or negotiation with Oracle. Using Snow OMO, organizations can create a dynamic Oracle Server Worksheet that’s quick and easy to update and gives the SAM manager instant visibility of licensing obligations.”

Analysts anticipate the volume of customer audits performed by Oracle and its partners will increase, with 38 percent of Oracle users being audited in 2012*. A common difficulty during audits is that any data collected by Oracle is not visible to the customer, so there is no independent verification of licensing obligations or cost. Using Snow OMO, organizations have the means to independently assess Oracle software usage and licensing obligations. This enables them to proactively manage the use and configuration of Oracle software, preventing unexpected costs and reducing the impact of subsequent audits.

Snow Oracle Management Option (OMO) is available with immediate effect.

* Source: How to survive an Oracle audit, 21 August 2013, Gartner