New Oracle Database Survey Shows Customers Satisfied with Current Releases but Concerned with Cost, Effort, and Upgrades Required to Maintain and Support

Rhea-AI Summary

Rimini Street, Inc. announces the findings of the 'Forces Driving the Future of Your Oracle Database Road Map' survey, highlighting challenges faced by Oracle Database customers as Premier Support for 19c ends. Most customers satisfied with current releases but concerned about high costs, effort, and upgrades needed for full support.

Positive

• Majority of Oracle Database customers plan to continue using current releases due to satisfaction with their investment.
• Customers running 19c or earlier versions face expensive upgrades or sustaining support in the future.
• Top challenges for Oracle Database customers include high costs, security patch application efforts, and regular upgrades for full support.
• Over one-third of customers outsource Oracle Database management to optimize business outcomes and reduce costs.

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• None.

High costs, cost and effort to apply security patches, and push for upgrades to maintain full support cited as top three Oracle Database challenges

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Rimini Street, Inc. (Nasdaq: RMNI), a global provider of end-to-end enterprise software support, products, and services, the leading third-party support provider for Oracle and SAP software, and a Salesforce and AWS partner, today announced the findings of the Foundry survey, “Forces Driving the Future of Your Oracle Database Road Map.” The Rimini Street-sponsored research was conducted among more than 100 U.S.-based Oracle application managers and leads, database architects, database administrators, and senior IT management.

New Oracle Database Survey Shows Customers Satisfied with Current Releases but Concerned with Cost, Effort, and Upgrades Required to Maintain and Support (Graphic: Business Wire)

The survey examines the strategies, underlying forces driving changes, and challenges experienced by Oracle Database customers as Premier Support for 19c comes to an end as of April 2024, followed by Oracle’s Extended Support in 2027.

Key Finding #1: Current Database Releases Meet Business Needs

Majority of participants plan to keep using Oracle Database (78%)

The survey shows that most enterprises depend on Oracle and are running a high number of Oracle instances, with survey participants averaging 182 instances.

To continue receiving full support from Oracle, organizations must upgrade, which can be both expensive and resource intensive. With 75% of the respondents reporting satisfaction with their Oracle Database investment, they have little incentive to upgrade.

Key Finding #2: Most Customers Running 19c or Earlier Face Expensive Upgrades or Sustaining Support in the Future

Most respondents (79%) are running version 19c or earlier.

The data reveals that 41% of respondents are running Oracle Database version 19c while 38% are running an Oracle database instance older than 19c. Today, the latter only receives Oracle’s minimal Sustaining Support service, while the former is scheduled to be forced to Sustaining Support by 2027.

According to the Oracle Lifetime Support Policy, Sustaining Support from Oracle does not provide new updates and data fixes, new security alerts and critical patch updates, new upgrade scripts, 24-hour commitment and response guidelines for Severity 1 service requests, among other important capabilities.

Key Finding #3: Customers Challenged with Cost, Effort and Upgrades

Top three Oracle Database challenges include: High cost (38%), cost and effort to apply security patches (38%), and regular upgrades to maintain full support (37%)

Most respondents say their Oracle Database includes customizations, with over one-third reporting that their instances are “highly” customized. Thus, these enterprises face an important strategic choice: spend a significant amount of time and money on an upgrade or find the support they need to extend the life of their current Oracle Database investment.

Key Finding #4: Oracle Database Customers Outsource to Optimize

Over one-third of respondents (36%) are outsourcing the management of their Oracle Database to achieve superior business outcomes

With limited time, money, and resources, over 36% of respondents are outsourcing some aspects of the management of their Oracle Database infrastructure to a managed service provider to optimize and improve performance (47%), reduce costs and the burden on staff (45%), and improve their focus on innovation (37%).

“With a majority of Oracle Database customers running 19c or earlier versions and enjoying the stability of the releases, the push to upgrade to a newer version does not provide enough ROI to justify the financial and resource commitment needed,” said Robert Freeman, published author of Oracle Database RMAN Backup and Recovery and senior director, product management for Database and Middleware at Rimini Street. “We are seeing more leaders take greater control of their IT roadmap by saying ‘no’ to the disruption and cost of upgrades and saying ‘yes’ to directing their people, time, and money towards strategic initiatives that accelerate their growth and profitability goals.”

“There are options when it comes to getting quality, end-to-end IT support and services, including zero-day security, that does not require extensive, expensive regression testing and offers comprehensive coverage of your customized environment,” said Freeman. “At Rimini Street, clients such as Hyundai Motor Group go from paying more than 20% of the purchase cost of the DBMS license for maintenance and support to saving 50% on annual support fees while enjoying support for customizations Oracle does not cover.”

“No matter the size of organization, IT leaders are always challenged to deliver innovation and add to the bottom-line at the same time. To drive ROI and maintain flexibility, successful IT roadmaps are drawn based on the needs of the business, not by the vendor demands,” says Freeman.

Access the full, comprehensive report, “Forces Driving the Future of Your Oracle Database Road Map,” here.

About Rimini Street, Inc.

Rimini Street, Inc. (Nasdaq: RMNI), a Russell 2000® Company, is a global provider of end-to-end enterprise software support, products and services, the leading third-party support provider for Oracle and SAP software and a Salesforce and AWS partner. The Company has operations globally and offers a comprehensive family of unified solutions to run, manage, support, customize, configure, connect, protect, monitor, and optimize enterprise application, database, and technology software, and enables clients to achieve better business outcomes, significantly reduce costs and reallocate resources for innovation. To date, over 5,500 Fortune 500, Fortune Global 100, midmarket, public sector, and other organizations from a broad range of industries have relied on Rimini Street as their trusted enterprise software solutions provider. To learn more, please visit riministreet.com, and connect with Rimini Street on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn. (IR-RMNI)

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In addition, forward-looking statements provide Rimini Street’s expectations, plans or forecasts of future events and views as of the date of this communication. Rimini Street anticipates that subsequent events and developments will cause Rimini Street’s assessments to change. However, while Rimini Street may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, Rimini Street specifically disclaims any obligation to do so, except as required by law. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing Rimini Street’s assessments as of any date subsequent to the date of this communication.

© 2024 Rimini Street, Inc. All rights reserved. “Rimini Street” is a registered trademark of Rimini Street, Inc. in the United States and other countries, and Rimini Street, the Rimini Street logo, and combinations thereof, and other marks marked by TM are trademarks of Rimini Street, Inc. All other trademarks remain the property of their respective owners, and unless otherwise specified, Rimini Street claims no affiliation, endorsement, or association with any such trademark holder or other companies referenced herein.

View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20240321224051/en/

Janet Ravin

VP, Global Communications

Rimini Street, Inc.

+1 702 285-3532

pr@riministreet.com

Source: Rimini Street, Inc.

FAQ

What are the top three challenges faced by Oracle Database customers according to the survey?

The top three challenges are high cost, cost and effort to apply security patches, and regular upgrades to maintain full support.

What percentage of respondents are running Oracle Database version 19c or earlier?

79% of respondents are running version 19c or earlier.

Why are most customers hesitant to upgrade their Oracle Database?

Most customers are satisfied with their current Oracle Database investment and see little incentive to upgrade due to high costs and resource intensiveness.

How many Oracle instances do survey participants on average run?

Survey participants average 182 Oracle instances.

What are customers doing to optimize Oracle Database management?

Over one-third of customers are outsourcing some aspects of Oracle Database management to achieve superior business outcomes.