The challenge
A large food distributor wanted a better sense of its Oracle footprint. The company distributes fresh, frozen, and prepackaged foods to a range of facilities, including restaurants, military bases, government agencies, schools, and hospitals. The company uses Oracle software to manage its massive supply chain of food producers, warehousers, and delivery services.
The company primarily used Oracle databases and some Oracle middleware products to assist with its supply chain. The middleware products enabled the distributor to build, support, and integrate custom applications. The company relied on these products to manage its operation and transportation fleet. It had never entered into an Unlimited Licensing Agreement (ULA) with Oracle, instead opting for licenses for specific entitlements.
The company had a long-standing relationship with Oracle but had never had the opportunity to get an accurate sense of whether it was using Oracle in an efficient and cost-effective way. While the company was not being audited, leadership wanted to ensure that if an audit did occur, they would be in a position of strength.
Looking online, the company’s leadership identified Palisade Compliance as a partner that could assist with gaining an understanding of its Oracle footprint.
Oracle footprint determined without triggering an audit
Working with us, the company gained a perspective on its Oracle footprint without having to alert Oracle or risk a possible audit. This enabled the company to thoroughly understand its compliance with regards to licensing. Because the company had used Oracle products for a long time, leadership wanted to ensure that its interpretation of the Oracle licenses was accurate – aware of Oracle’s aggressive auditing practices and the ambiguity of its licensing. The goal was to identify and rectify ensure any gaps between the company’s use and its Oracle entitlements. While the company had engaged in continuous self-audits for all of its Oracle products, the engagement with us helped the business to improve what it was auditing, how the auditing occurred, and how it collected and interpreted results. In essence, we acted as a surrogate Oracle, enabling the company to understand what could happen if an audit ever did occur.
We helped the company to identify areas for concern, including those where users had unintentionally downloaded software add-ons because Oracle makes it easy to do so. We were able to pinpoint which aspects of the company’s Oracle footprint were licensed and which were not, as well as the free versus premium portions of those products. And, in the case of virtualization, Palisade helped the business recognize what it needed to do to ensure that it was segregating Oracle environments sufficiently so that virtualizations couldn’t be viewed as utilizing the entire environment. This would save the business money in the long run.
Outcomes summary
Having our outside perspective was like an insurance policy for the business. Many of our employees and executives formerly worked at Oracle, enabling them to give the distributor a comprehensive view of its Oracle usage. Working with us, the distributor gained a better understanding of its Oracle landscape and the peace of mind that it was ready to respond in the case of an audit. The company acquired insight into effective ways to segregate and manage its application and product environments so that it would not be charged for items it didn’t intend to use. It has new internal audit procedures as well, which include remediation of any possible issues.
The partnership has continued, as we update the company on new license developments and how to manage them. The company’s leadership feels that if the company was ever audited by Oracle, it could respond in a much more effective manner than it would have been able to without us.
We were able to pinpoint which aspects of the company’s Oracle footprint were licensed, and which were not.
Are you unsure of your Oracle footprint and concerned about the impact of an audit?