Canada Life. Oracle licensing assessment delivers material saving.

Canada Life is one of the largest Canadian insurance and wealth management groups, with roughly twelve thousand employees across Canada, the United Kingdom and Ireland. Its Oracle estate covers Database Enterprise Edition, Real Application Clusters and the Diagnostics Pack.

A group operating across three jurisdictions has a licensing problem most single country businesses never meet. Entities acquire software separately, entitlement sits in different agreements, and nobody holds the consolidated picture.

The assessment rebuilt that picture and optimised the position across the estate.

The customer profile

Twelve thousand employees across three countries, in a sector where regulatory obligations shape the architecture as much as commercial ones do.

Insurance workloads drive Real Application Clusters harder than most. Policy administration and claims systems are availability critical, so the high availability tier is real rather than aspirational, and RAC is licensed per processor on top of the database.

The multi jurisdiction structure also means data residency requirements differ by entity, which shapes where capacity sits and therefore what gets licensed where.

The opening position

Oracle's position priced the estate at its provisioned capacity, with options carried across the full processor count and support renewed on the accumulated history.

Because entitlement was spread across agreements held by different entities, there was no single consolidated counter position to test it against.

The approach

Three strands, run in parallel across the three jurisdictions.

Processor counting first, on the correct basis of physical cores multiplied by the core factor for each processor family. Estates that grew by entity frequently have this inconsistent between sites.

Options second. Which instances genuinely used Real Application Clusters and the Diagnostics Pack, and which had them enabled because a default or a tool switched them on.

Entity scope third. Which agreement covers which legal entity, and whether entitlement bought by one part of the group can be used by another. In a multi jurisdiction insurer that question is worth asking carefully.

The eleven moves

1. Recount processors on the correct core basis. Physical cores multiplied by the core factor, per server, rounded up.
2. Audit enabled options instance by instance. Especially the Diagnostics and Tuning packs.
3. Separate options in use from options merely enabled. The two are rarely the same set.
4. Match Real Application Clusters to the tier that needs it. Not to the whole estate.
5. Reconcile support against live capacity. Decommissioned hardware should not carry maintenance.
6. Test Enterprise Edition against Standard Edition 2. Where the socket and feature limits allow it.
7. Compare processor licensing against Named User Plus. Applying the minimums honestly.
8. Check entity and territory scope. Especially where the group spans jurisdictions.
9. Negotiate the discount across the whole stack. Licence, options and support together.
10. Fix price protection before you need it. Support compounds for the life of the estate.
11. Re measure quarterly. Provisioning drifts faster than annual reviews can track.

The commercial outcome

• Position optimised. Across Database Enterprise Edition, Real Application Clusters and the Diagnostics Pack.
• Processor count. Rebuilt consistently on the correct core factor basis across all three jurisdictions.
• Options. Reconciled to genuine use rather than to what was enabled.
• Entity scope. Entitlement consolidated and mapped to the legal entities that can use it.
• Support. Aligned to live capacity rather than to accumulated history.

For any group operating across jurisdictions, the consolidated entitlement picture is the artefact worth building. Without it you cannot tell whether you are buying something you already own.

How we engage

• Oracle scoping. A six week engagement that recounts processors on the correct core basis, audits enabled options instance by instance, and aligns support to live capacity. Oracle services practice.
• Oracle negotiation. We run the commercial conversation across the licence, the options and the support line. Oracle contract negotiation service.
• Oracle audit defense. Position and evidence if Oracle opens a review. Oracle audit services.
• Vendor Shield. Always on cover across Oracle and the wider software estate. Vendor Shield.
• Run the numbers. The software spend assessment sizes your Oracle position against what is actually deployed.