Why a CIO should sweat their Oracle Database

A huge number of organisations are using Oracle Database, on which they host their applications and estate, sometimes even hosting products from other providers like SAP. Many organisations will be running multiple databases on different versions delivering multiple systems across their estate.

But should Oracle Database users continue to follow Oracle and keep upgrading their databases just because Oracle say so?

Or should they make the strategic choice to save money and sweat Oracle databases, knowing that they will no longer receive Oracle’s vendor support?

Should you upgrade your Oracle Databases?

The problem is it’s the age-old outcome of “damned if you do, damned if you don’t.” Both have pros and cons which need to be considered.

Option one: Keep upgrading Oracle Database

On the one hand, you can continuously upgrade to the most up-to-date version (i.e. 18c and 19c), which in turn allows you to run more modern applications and systems. Staying updated also means you know you’re always going to have access to Oracle’s vendor support, including their security and legislative patches. Whereas older, “legacy” products are left unsupported, or have much more limited support (but at a much higher cost).

The trade-off to this option is having to commit additional resources to upgrade an already working system (for limited benefit), in addition to the support fees you’re already paying to Oracle.

However, the real issue that many organisations are facing now, is that an upgrade to Oracle Databases may make them incompatible with older systems that are running on them. In which case, this may not be an option at all.

Option two: Stay on your older database versions

Many organisations keep to their older Oracle Database versions, either because they don’t want to make the upgrade for financial reasons, or because of the aforementioned incompatibility issues.

As we’ve already highlighted, organisations which run older systems can’t update their databases. Doing so carries the risk that their older systems and applications hosted on the databases will no longer work.

Meanwhile, Oracle are mercilessly ramping up the costs of support and maintenance for these “legacy” products. This is even if they work perfectly fine and have done for many years, with very little need for maintenance.

What should your strategy be?

So, you have two doors to choose from: upgrade and potentially risk your estate toppling over, or sweat Oracle databases and be left unsupported and facing mounting support fees?

Damned if you do, damned if you don’t…

Your third (party) option

Fortunately, there is a third door to open, and it has ‘third-party support’ written on it.

You could decide to switch your older databases over to third-party support, as you don’t need to update them. And you could keep your modern, up-to-date databases under Oracle’s support, enabling you to maintain any upgrades necessary.

But here’s the best bit. You can have the best of both worlds.

Your legacy databases are likely to be the more expensive of the two in terms of value for money. Consider how much you’re spending for Oracle to “support” them and how much you’re getting in return. Moving to our third-party support cuts Oracle’s support costs in half. You can invest those savings into updates for newer databases.

Alternatively, if all you’ve got is legacy databases, you can move all of them over to us. We’ll take care of support and maintenance, while you get to reap the benefits of costs savings. And you’ve escaped Oracle’s constant pressures to upgrade.

We’re already helping – and we can help you too

We enable IT roadmap flexibility, allowing you to delay (or even avoid altogether) Oracle’s upgrades, and stick to systems that are familiar and functional.

Many of our customers use Oracle Databases, and the flexibility we provide them has unlocked massive budget savings. We’ve enabled these organisations to reinvest in modernisation projects. This includes purchasing new software or migrating to a new database provider altogether for example.

Our customers range from manufacturers and transport providers to top-level central government organisations. We’ve helped them sweat Oracle databases and unlock their budget for future development. It’s our way of enabling organisations to stay stable and work on their modernisation at the same time.

If you’d like to see exactly how we’ve helped our customers, you can use the link below to view our case study archives. Alternatively, use our Savings Calculator straight away to see for yourself just how much you could save.


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