Oracle licensing on Google Cloud operates as follows:
- Google Cloud has been approved as an authorized cloud vendor since June 2024. And you can now license Oracle instances per vCPU.
- Google offers GCP and Bare Metal solutions for deploying Oracle.
- For Google Bare Metal, customers bring/purchase their own Oracle licenses and use them as a BYOL (Bring Your Own License) solution.
Oracle Licensing on Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
Regarding Oracle licensing on the Google Cloud Platform (GCP), there are specific guidelines to follow. This ensures compliance and proper usage. Here’s a breakdown of the key points:
Oracle Processor Licensing
For licensing Oracle programs on GCP, you need to count the maximum vCPUs of an instance type. The rules are as follows:
- With Multi-Threading Enabled: Two vCPUs are equivalent to one Oracle Processor license.
- Without Multi-Threading: One vCPU is equivalent to one Oracle Processor license.
It’s important to note that the Oracle Processor Core Factor Table does not apply in these cloud environments.
Standard Edition Licensing
When licensing Oracle programs like Standard Edition One, Standard Edition 2, or Standard Edition, the pricing depends on the instance size:
- Instances with four or Fewer vCPUs: Counted as one socket, equivalent to one Oracle Processor license.
- Instances with More than four vCPUs: Every four vCPUs (rounded up to the nearest multiple of four) equate to a licensing requirement of one socket.
Instance Limits
- Oracle Database Standard Edition: Can be licensed on instances up to 16 GCP vCPUs.
- Oracle Standard Edition One and Standard Edition 2: Can be licensed on instances up to 8 GCP vCPUs.
Named User Plus Metric
If you’re licensing Database Standard Edition 2 by the Named User Plus (NUP) metric, the minimum requirement is 10 NUP licenses per 8 GCP vCPUs.
Adhering to these guidelines can ensure that your Oracle licensing on GCP is compliant and optimized for your cloud environment.
Licensing Oracle on Google Bare Metal
As an end customer, you need to choose Google Bare Metal Solutions, where you calculate licensing as you would if you deployed Oracle in your data center. Google does not offer any “license included” solution – therefore, you need to bring/purchase your own Oracle licenses and use them as a BYOL solution.
For example:
Suppose you need thirty-two cores of Oracle database EE in GCP/Bare metal. – You will need sixteen Oracle Enterprise Database processor licenses as Google uses Intel Xeon processors.
