Oracle has many different products, all of them varying in age and version.
It states it cannot reasonably manage that number of products and that level of variation at all times, so the megavendor only offers support and maintenance on the most recent releases.
This is essentially Oracle saying, “in a few years, we won’t help you – not unless you upgrade.” Such is the limit of its support.
Support Revolution, on the other hand, support all older versions in line with response and resolution SLAs, all within ISO quality parameters.
It’s not just a matter of covering what Oracle won’t — we also do it better.
The newest products that receive Oracle’s full support are entitled to legislative and security updates, critical patches, and so on – the technical fixes necessary to keep organisations functioning, protected, and compliant.
As time passes and Oracle continues to develop and release new products, older versions are relegated to lower tiers of support, and no longer receive the same services as before.
If customers don’t (or can’t) keep up with Oracle’s endless upgrade cycle, they are left behind and expected to make do with the support they have, because products have an established number of years on Oracle’s top tier of support until they “expire.”
The vendor’s expectation is then for organisations to upgrade to the latest version and maintain its top-tier of support. Otherwise, the product moves down the tiers and the level of support and service diminishes, all while the costs continue to rise.
Oracle splits its support model into three key headings: Premier, Extended, and Sustaining.
Premier Support is Oracle’s top tier of support. It is the level that every new product release starts on, and it includes patches, security, legislative changes, bug fixes, access to My Oracle Support, and more.
Premier Support ends on a designated date. This is usually a few years after the product’s release date, but not necessarily a long time after the customer bought the software.
This can become a problem for the buyer. An organisation could be sold a product on Premier Support and soon after be told that it needs to upgrade to maintain it, otherwise it’ll move onto Extended Support.
With Extended Support, the clue is in the name; it’s a way of extending the shelf life of Premier beyond its deadline.
For this service, organisations pay an additional fee: an extra 10% on the existing support fee in year one, an extra 20% in year two, and another 20% in year three.
Extended Support usually lasts for three years after Premier, but it can be more depending on the product, and often Oracle will extend the Extended cut-off date even further.
Sometimes, Extended Support isn’t offered at all.
The bottom tier, Sustaining Support, lasts indefinitely.
Organisations have access to My Oracle Support, fixes, updates, critical patch updates, and upgrade scripts that were created during the Premier Support stage, but not new ones.
The lack of legislative and security updates leaves organisations on Sustaining Support at risk of threats, and/or falling out of compliance, and it can force organisations into an unwanted move they may have been reluctant to complete.
Despite this significantly reduced level of service, organisations on Sustaining Support must continue paying the same support costs with the percentage increases added from Extended.
In the first year of being on Sustaining Support, an organisation can be paying way more on support costs than when it first purchased the product.
Below is our simplified breakdown of the differences between Oracle’s Premier, Extended and Sustaining Support tiers:
| Support Features | Premier Support | Extended Support | Sustaining Support |
| Major product and technology releases | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Technical support | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| My Oracle Support | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| New updates, fixes, security alerts, and critical patches | Yes | Yes | No* |
| New tax, legal, and regulatory updates | Yes | Yes | No |
| New upgrade scripts | Yes | Yes | No |
| Certification with most new third-party products/versions | Yes | Yes** | No |
| Certification with most new Oracle products | Yes | Yes | No |
| Price rises | +8% annually | Additional 10% in year one, then additional 20% in years two & three +8% annually |
+8% annually |
*Unless created during the Premier Support stage.
** Extended Support may not include certification with some new third-party products/versions.
Short answer: it depends. But it always costs too much.
It depends entirely on:
With so many variables, it’s difficult to comprehend the figures.
To make things clearer, here is a ten-year timeline of how Oracle’s support costs can stack up:
For this example, we’ll use Oracle Database 19C.
A Processor Licence costs £36,500 per licence with support fees charged at 22%. Your organisation decides to pay for 100 Processor Licences on Oracle Database 19C, totalling £3,650,000.
Customers spending this much would likely expect a discount, of at least 50%. The licences would therefore cost £1,825,000 and support & maintenance – charged at 22% – would be £401,500.
| Year | Support level | Annual support cost | Reason |
| One | Premier | £401,500 | |
| Two | Premier | £433,620 | Oracle applies an 8% annual price increase. |
| Three | Premier | £468,310 | Another 8% increase. |
| Four | Extended | £552,606 | 8% annual increase, plus 10% on top for Extended Support. |
| Five | Extended | £707,336 | Second year on Extended Support means an 8% annual increase, plus 20% on top. |
| Six | Extended | £905,390 | Another 8% annual increase plus 20% on top. |
| Seven | Sustaining | £977,821 | Almost all support services are no longer available. 8% increases still apply. |
| Eight | Sustaining | £1,056,047 | Another 8%. |
| Nine | Sustaining | £1,140,531 | Another 8%. |
| Ten | Sustaining | £1,231,773 | Another 8%. |
(Annual increases calculated by “previous cost + 8%” | Extended Support increases calculated by “(previous cost + 8%) + 10%” and so on.)
A decade on and your organisation has gone from paying £401,500 in support fees in year one, to £1,231,773 in year ten.
That is a price increase of 206% (or £830,273 extra) in just ten years!
During that time frame, you will have spent a grand total of £7,874,934 in support fees on £1,825,000 worth of Processor Licences.
In addition to this, the amount of support you received has decreased dramatically.
Bear in mind that this represents just one portion of your Oracle estate. It doesn’t include additional costs for applications and middleware support or even audit fines.
Even if you upgrade to the latest version of Oracle Database and return to Premier Support, that support cost will follow you.
The increment spikes of these numbers are outrageous.
It also demonstrates why organisations need to urgently consider switching to third-party support as soon as possible. Because the sooner they make that switch, the better.
Why is that the case?
Our third-party support guarantees to cut your existing Oracle Support fee by at least 50%.
So, if you moved over in year one of our example, instead of paying £401,500 a year on support fees, you would pay (at most) £200,750. At the end of ten years, you would have saved nearly £4million — an amazing boost to your IT budget!
With our support in place, you’ll receive a superior service to Oracle’s Premier Support, and you’ll be able to extend the lifespan of your Oracle software indefinitely.
Unlike Oracle, we don’t degrade or diminish our services over time. Customers, especially those currently on Sustaining Support, can switch to third-party support and receive a much-enhanced service for a greatly reduced price.
“The figures we’ve used here are hypothetical, but the amounts some organisations are currently paying to Oracle are all too real. The good news is, so is the amount you could save with our third-party support.“
Mark Smith, CEO of Support Revolution
The example we’ve given is a basic one to illustrate our point and demonstrate the savings possible with third-party support. To build a business case for switching to third-party support, you should provide an example that is relevant and specific to your organisation.
To help do this, we have created a free-to-use savings calculator that will demonstrate to you and your key stakeholders just how much you’re currently spending on Oracle Support costs, and how much you stand to save by moving to third-party support with Support Revolution.
After you’ve discovered how much you can save, why not book in a quick 30-minute chat with one of our team to start taking back control of your Oracle roadmap.
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