The ArxPlatform Flags $327K Oracle Licensing Issue for EMEA Energy Provider

Executive Summary

More than five years into their ArxSecure subscription—and after securing over $5 million in savings by avoiding unnecessary Oracle licensing costs during a previous hardware transition—an EMEA energy provider encountered an unexpected Oracle licensing misstep that could have resulted in a $327,000 audit claim. The Oracle licensing issue was first detected by ArxPlatform’s real-time monitoring system and immediately escalated to the LicenseFortress team, who notified the organization’s Cloud Architect. Thanks to their foresight in choosing ArxSecure, the incident was swiftly contained—delivering ROI that far exceeded the total cost of the service, with more than 400% return.

Challenges

Hidden Oracle Licensing Risk from Active Data Guard Configuration

The customer maintained a disciplined Oracle environment with strong internal controls. However, an unexpected configuration change triggered Oracle’s Active Data Guard feature on a single virtual machine—an option that carries a high licensing cost and often goes unnoticed by internal teams.

Under Oracle’s licensing policies, the actual contractual obligation in this case was limited: only the host running the database and its Data Guard counterpart needed to be licensed—requiring 16 processor licenses total. This would have cost roughly $33,000 for one-year term licenses.

However, Oracle rarely stops there. In an audit, they typically take a more aggressive stance—asserting that all nodes in the entire cluster must be licensed for the activated feature, regardless of where it ran. In this case, that would have meant 32 perpetual processor licenses at list price, totaling approximately $327,000, plus retroactive support charges for each year the Oracle licensing issue remained undetected.

Solution

Real-Time License Monitoring and Proactive Oracle Compliance Response

ArxPlatform’s monitoring capabilities identified the feature activation and flagged the LicenseFortress team. The team validated the risk, documented the scope, and alerted the customer immediately. They also provided clear remediation steps to disable Active Data Guard, prevent recurrence, and ensure internal documentation was preserved in case of future Oracle scrutiny.

Results

Avoided Oracle Audit Costs Through Early Detection and Expert Remediation

The incident occurred more than five years into an otherwise quiet compliance history. Had it gone undetected, the misstep could have quietly escalated—compounding over time and significantly increasing the company’s financial exposure if discovered during a future Oracle audit. Instead, ArxPlatform caught the issue immediately, allowing the organization to correct it proactively. The avoided exposure from this single event exceeded the total cost of five years of ArxSecure service, delivering a positive return on investment.

Oracle Audit Exposure if Undetected:

Year	License Cost	Cumulative Support Fees	Total Audit Claim
Year 1	$327,000	$71,940	$398,940
Year 2	—	$143,880	$470,880
Year 3	—	$215,820	$542,820
Year 4	—	$287,760	$614,760
Year 5	—	$359,700	$686,700

With ArxSecure in place:

• ArxPlatform detected the license-triggering activity in real time
• The LicenseFortress team alerted the customer immediately
• Total contractual exposure was limited to ~$33,000
• ROI from this single detection: 419%

Compliance risks don’t happen every month—but when they do, they’re costly. One brief incident could have cost hundreds of thousands. Thanks to ArxPlatform the customer avoided the entire risk. That’s the value of real-time monitoring: always on, always watching, and always ready—whether or not you see the problem coming.

At a Glance