Hi Ram
That doesn't seem like a silly question to me. It is unclear to me, and
probably others outside of your organisation, as to whether "landing" is a
storage location where new data "lands" before being loaded into
production, or if it is an intermediate system consisting of licensable
software. I'm going to assume the latter because in the former case it
isn't clear what you would be licensing.
The short answer is that you are correct and your user is incorrect. The
rule of thumb is that any system used for your business purposes
(dev/test/qa/prod etc etc etc) is licensable. This absolutely *will *be the
approach Oracle take during an audit. If you are used to licensing per
processor this rule is expressed in the famous processor definition in the
Oracle License and Services Agreement (OLSA) which forms part of your
contract and states " all processors where the Oracle programs are
installed and/or running". If you are using an alternative measure such as
named user licenses, then you need to include the nonproduction processors
in the processor minimum calculations. Similar, but possibly not identical
rules apply to other Oracle software offerings.
It *is* sort of true that MS allow non-production systems to run
"unlicensed" in that many, but not all, non-production systems can be
cost-effectively covered by ensuring that *all *developers and testers who
access them are covered by an appropriate Visual Studio Subscription. (See
the licensing guide at
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sql-server/sql-server-2017-pricing ;). In
other words, you don't need a SQL or Windows license because all the users
have a Visual Studio License.
In your particular case, I'd want to double-check that the landing system
qualified as a non-production system in the MS world as well. From the
licensing guide emphasis mine.
"Note: A production environment is defined as an environment that is
accessed by end-users of an application (such as an internet website) and*
that is used for more than gathering feedback or acceptance testing* of
that application. Other scenarios that constitute production environments
include:
•* Environments that connect to a production database*"
Organisations definitely need to understand these rules, so as to avoid
surprises. Usually, this should be something that asset management would
lead on, with IT teams being briefed as to how to comply. I know that often
this isn't the case in reality.
On Fri, Dec 6, 2019 at 4:58 PM Ram Raman <veeeraman@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi
I have a question on licenses for the database used in landing. A user of
mine says that we dont need to get 'production' licenses for the landing
area because it is not production and that only the warehouse needs to be
licensed as production. He says that is how they do in the Microsoft world.
I feel that the landing area should be licensed as production as well.
Thoughts?
Thanks
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