Oracle licensing

PortaBilling with Oracle Real Application Cluster is supplied with a bundled (also called ASFU – Application Specific Full Use) license for all the necessary Oracle software – the Oracle Database Server Enterprise Edition (with Advanced Data Guard and Partitioning options) and the Oracle Real Application Cluster. This means that PortaBilling with Oracle Real Application Cluster covers the costs of both PortaOne-developed software and Oracle licenses, thus providing you with significant savings compared to the purchase of separate licenses directly from Oracle.

Just consider that without the bundled license, for the standard installation of PortaBilling with Oracle Real Application Cluster consisting of (three database servers, each server containing two eight-core CPUs), you would need licenses for the Oracle Database Server Enterprise Edition, plus the Real Application Cluster and Partitioning option. The price of the Oracle license costs, in this case, would be (number of servers) * (number of CPUs * (number of cores per CPU/2)) * (license cost):

Licenses:

Oracle Database Server Enterprise Edition        $47,500

Real Application Cluster                                        $23,000

Partitioning option                                                  $11,500

Subtotal:                                                                $82,000

Multiplied by:

Number of servers:                                                           3

Number of CPUs                                                               2

Number of cores per CPU/2                                           4/2

Total hypothetical cost of Oracle licenses:    $984,000

If you were to purchase the Oracle licenses on your own, you would need to spend the above amount. With PortaBilling with Oracle Real Application Cluster, you basically save this amount, since all these licenses are included in the price of the PortaBilling with Oracle Real Application Cluster license (which is much lower).

1. As PortaBilling with Oracle Real Application Cluster is provided with an AFSU Oracle license, you are permitted to directly access data in the PortaBilling with Oracle Real Application Cluster database from your own applications (for instance, a reporting system, data export tool, or external web portal). You can even add new objects to the database schema (e.g., create a new table to hold the usage summary per customer). The only limitation here is that data from the database must be used solely in connection with PortaBilling with Oracle Real Application Cluster, e.g., you cannot create new tables to store payroll data for your company.
2. PortaOne has a non-standard agreement with Oracle for the ASFU licenses. In particular, the ASFU licenses aren’t subject to standard Oracle metrics, such as the limit on CPU cores and database users.
3. The ASFU licenses related to your PortaBilling with Oracle Real Application Cluster are not subject to local audit: if a local Oracle distributor or representative performs an audit of your сompany and inquires about the ASFU licenses, refer them to PortaOne, as PortaOne is the party responsible for maintaining compliance.