What are the benefits of licensing Oracle on AWS?

Benefits of Licensing Oracle on AWS

  • vCPU-Based Licensing: More flexible than physical host-based licensing.

  • Virtualization Policy: No need to license all physical hosts on AWS.

  • Compliance Considerations: Adherence to Oracle’s territorial and usage restrictions ensures compliance.

What to check before you make the move

  • Territory Clause: Verify the Oracle Ordering Document to ensure your deployment is permitted in the chosen AWS region.

  • Licensing Agreement Restrictions: Review your licensing agreement for any restrictions on AWS deployment.

  • Standard Edition 2 Limitation: Oracle Database Standard Edition 2 is limited to AWS instances with a maximum of 8 vCPUs.

  • Unlimited License Agreement (ULA): AWS deployments may be excluded from ULA exit numbers. Refer to the certification clause in your Oracle ULA for specifics.

Key Options for Oracle Licensing on AWS EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud)

AWS EC2 is a cloud computing service offering flexible computing capacity. When running Oracle databases on EC2, licensing depends on the occupied sockets on the instance. 

  • Core Factor Table: Specifies licenses required for different CPU architectures.

  • Licensing Policy: Based on the number of vCPUs for EC2 instances running Oracle applications and databases.

  • License Transfer: Existing Oracle licenses can be transferred to AWS, but Oracle’s policies may change, so stay updated.

  • Licensing Options:

    • Standard Edition: One CPU per virtual core.

    • Enterprise Edition: Four processor licenses per eight vCPUs.

Key Options for Oracle Licensing on AWS RDS

AWS RDS for Oracle offers full control over your database infrastructure, environment, and operating system.

License Models

  • Bring Your Own License (BYOL): Use existing Oracle licenses on Amazon RDS, ideal for customers with current licenses.

  • License Included: AWS provides the Oracle license, included in the hourly RDS rate, perfect for customers without Oracle licenses or who prefer not to manage them.

Oracle Support

  • Adherence to Oracle’s technical support policies is required when using AWS RDS.

Availability

  • License Included: Available for Oracle Database Standard Edition One and Two.

  • Bring Your Own License: Available for Oracle Database EE, SE2, and SE1.

Disaster Recovery

  • Fully license all Oracle instances at both the primary and DR sites.

Java Licensing

  • Required per vCPU on AWS.