VMware has recently participated in development of a Total Cost of Ownership tool that produces a quick estimate of the licensing and support savings that could result from virtualizing your Oracle databases on VMware vSphere.

We’ve seen customers’ virtualization progress stall when it comes to virtualization of Oracle workloads. This could be due to lack of support from an organization’s DBA’s, or simply a sense that the risk of virtualizing these workloads exceeds the potential benefits.  These issues can be overcome by showing the cost of running non-consolidated databases on physical servers.  Oracle costs ~$23,500 per core to license on Intel CPUs.  Annual support adds another ~$10,000 per core every year.  While the license fee may be significantly discounted, service rarely is.

With these kind ofnumbers, eliminating even a few servers licensed for Oracle through consolidation can turn into big savings for an organization.  Even for customers with an “all you can eat” Oracle ELA, managing the rapid growth of Oracle servers can be very valuable when renewal comes around.  These savings could be used for more strategic, business differentiating initiatives rather than maintaining the status quo year over year.

The Total Cost of Ownership tool is designed to serve as a discovery aid prior to a VMware Professional Services engagement. The tool defines and presents the significant savings available when virtualizing Oracle workloads on VMware vSphere. The results will lead to an Oracle-focused Licensing Assessment to define detailed savings and how to achieve them, paid for by the savings opportunity.

As your strategic advisor, your VMware Technical Account Manager can assist you with a first-pass estimate of savings available from consolidating your Oracle workloads on VMware vSphere. If the numbers from that estimate are compelling to you and your organization, your VMware Technical Account Manager can assist you in engaging VMware Professional Services for the next lap of the journey.

If you’d like to learn more about VMware’s Oracle Total Cost of Ownership tool and the Oracle-focused Licensing Assessment, contact your Technical Account Manager.