Customer Story · Semiconductor Manufacturer
Your application provider’s technical choices can affect your compliance.
You purchase software to run your business: automate production, coordinate equipment, analyze operations or improve efficiency. Those applications may also use features in your Oracle environment that require licenses you do not hold.
The application can introduce the usage. Your organization remains responsible for compliance under its Oracle agreement.
Two incidents at a semiconductor manufacturer illustrate how that disconnect can create substantial financial exposure.
The manufacturer relied on third-party software to support factory automation and manufacturing operations.
An application coordinating material movement between processing equipment and storage relied on database records for movement requests, carrier histories, robots, vehicles and equipment utilization. LicenseFortress identified nine application tables that appeared to have been created with Oracle Partitioning enabled. The customer did not hold the required licenses.
$336,720 recorded contractual exposure, including license and support costs
Unlicensed Partitioning across three database instances in a manufacturing operations environment. Software in this category brings together factory and equipment information to support production visibility and optimization.
$336,720 recorded contractual exposure
These are individual incident assessments. The available records do not establish whether the same licenses would address both findings.
An application’s technical requirements and your Oracle licensing rights are separate considerations.
Your provider may design software to use a database capability because it supports the application’s functionality or performance. That does not establish that your organization is entitled to use that capability under its Oracle agreement.
This creates a gap between what the application can do and what your organization is licensed to run.
Even when a third-party application introduces the usage, your organization remains the Oracle contracting party. Any rights you may have against the application provider are a separate contractual question; they do not automatically resolve the Oracle compliance issue.
In both incidents, LicenseFortress documented the unlicensed usage, assessed the exposure and identified possible responses:
The records do not confirm completed remediation. They demonstrate the importance of identifying the issue so the customer can evaluate its options. Earlier review creates an opportunity to examine those choices before an implementation or upgrade reaches production.
LicenseFortress works with customers and software providers to connect application requirements with the customer’s actual licensing position.
Through its ISV program, LicenseFortress can help review implementations, upgrades and configurations for unexpected Oracle licensing dependencies. Independent guidance helps both parties understand the implications before making deployment decisions.
Your application provider’s involvement matters. Your organization’s contractual responsibility makes that review essential.
Ask your software provider to include LicenseFortress licensing guidance in your next implementation or upgrade—or engage LicenseFortress to review the applications already operating in your Oracle environment.
