Oracle has been called out on its complicated relationship with end-users on various occasions, for its Cloud service offing due to its licensing practices that are said to be tacky and complicated – not straight forward.
To the end of last year, a non-profit licensing organisation that aims at supporting business software buyers by campaigning for their rights, released a survey that rendered Oracle Cloud a doubtful offing that business customers are reluctant to adopt.
As stated in the survey by the global licensing company, Campaign For Clear Licensing (CCL), from the 100 organizations that were selected around the world, 90 per cent held negative views on handling Oracle audit requests that are triggered once a question is asked on Oracle’s Global License Management Services.
CCL said it was clear that customers do not trust Oracle, especially because of the perception users have of expecting to get prompt advice once a question is asked, instead of the audit requests that are usually unclear and difficult to respond to.
Now through an open letter to Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and the entire Board of Directors, CCL founder has asked that Oracle addresses its licensing problem by making significant changes in the way it handles its Cloud Service Licensing practices.
“With just 5% of your revenue deriving from cloud services you have a long way to go before cloud becomes a major part of your business, and we believe there are significant challenges to overcome,” reads part of the letter.
“Not least of all is overcoming the deep-rooted mistrust of your core customer base as a result of your auditing and licensing practices”
According to the organisation, if Oracle is serious about wanting to migrate consumers to its cloud computing platform so it can achieve its 1 Billion Dollars target sales for 2016, it must be ready to take steps to address the vendor lock-in concerns from customers.
Also in the letter is a list of seven detailed changes that customers around the world cited they would like to see made for them to regain their trust in Oracle’s cloud service, including re-engineering its products and license agreements in a way that will reduce the burden that customers complain about in dealing with Oracle cloud.
In light to this, CCL is asking Oracle to consider giving full control to the business itself rather than the developer and also step up communication strategies as well as educate consumers on the right application of resources for managing software.
Oracle is not the only company to receive concerns about its licensing practices for its Cloud platform, with companies like Microsoft and SAP also making the list. The company continues to make improvements in the service with new added features coming to the platform.
Last year, for example, Oracle announced a new capability dubbed Oracle MAX to its Oracle mobile cloud service offing that would allow anyone to develop their own mobile applications through a web browser, to suit their specific business operations.
