They say a leopard never changes its spots, and it certainly seems true of Oracle.
Once again, the mega-vendor has cooked up a scheme to serve its own needs (rather than that of its customers’) but, this time, the goalposts changed before anyone realised…
When Oracle first announced the launch of Database 12.2.0.1, it seemed unusually generous of the vendor to provide 16 months of Premier Support Error Correction for no additional charge.
It has since become evident that this was all part of a much bigger plan.
You see, not only did Oracle not offer the usual Extended Support for Database 12.2.0.1, the vendor also isn’t offering its customers any alternative support options, such as Sustaining Support or Market Driven Support, either.
This means that users of Oracle Database 12.2.0.1 went unsupported at the end of March 2022.
The message was pretty clear: upgrade. But, why was Oracle being so much more forceful with its latest Database versions?
The vendor has spent a great deal of time perfecting its long game. This is particularly true when it comes to the vendor’s Cloud offering, and would certainly explain this latest trap.
As it was late to join the race, Oracle has some catching up to do and leverages every opportunity to drive up its Cloud revenue figures.
This could explain the strategic timing (16 months for additional support is a pretty unusual timeframe, isn’t it?) of the desupport deadline for Database 12.2.1.0 as, conveniently, Oracle’s financial year end is May 31st.
By cutting short the support for Database 12.2.0.1, Oracle has opened a reasonable window of opportunity for the vendor to push these Database users in the direction of its latest versions; 19c or 21c.
The significance of both of these Database versions being that they are Oracle’s “Cloud” databases. And, it would seem that you need to be on 19c or 21c (which also didn’t see customers offered an Extended Support period), if you are an Oracle Database customer, by January 2023.
So, at this point, it’s pretty evident that offering this additional period of Premier Support Error Correction, rather than the standard Oracle Support tiers, was a last minute attempt at trying to coerce customers into upgrading, or migrating, to bolster the vendors’ bottom line before their fiscal year end.
If you’re not interested in becoming just another statistic on Oracle’s financial reports, there is an alternative.
Third-party support is a Gartner-recommended alternative to vendor support and enables organisations to break free from Oracle’s upgrade cycle, and reclaim autonomy of their own IT roadmap.
At Support Revolution, our expertise of Oracle products means that we’re able to support all versions of Oracle’s Database. So, rather than upgrading on Oracle’s watch, your organisation can choose to stick with its current Database for as long as this works for you.
Plus, we offer exceptional support services, underpinned by stringent SLAs, to all of our customers, regardless of what version of Database your organisation chooses to run.
We won’t try and catch you out with desupport dates, push you to upgrade to 19c or 21c, or coerce you into moving to the Cloud.
Plus, with Support Revolution, you can save more than 50% on your annual Oracle Support bill. In fact, we have saved our customers 64% on their support costs on average. These savings can then be reinvested back into the organisation, and could even be used to pursue an upgrade when you are ready to do so.
Why not use our Savings Calculator to find out just how much we could you?
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