Oracle Third Party Support | White Paper

The Short Version

If you read nothing else

Bottom Line

Third party support is the most under used Oracle leverage. Most CIOs treat it as a fallback. The playbook is to treat it as a live option in every renewal. Even buyers who never switch save 15 to 25 percent on Oracle support by keeping the alternative warm in procurement.

Key Takeaways

Five conclusions

Pricing is real. Rimini Street and Spinnaker price at roughly 50 percent of Oracle support. The savings are 50 percent on the support line item.

You keep the license. Third party support does not affect license ownership. You keep the perpetual license. You change who supports it.

You lose patches. Oracle patches require active support. Third party support provides their own patches and security fixes. The trade off is real.

Legal landscape settled. The Oracle vs Rimini cases settled the major issues. Third party support is legitimate and operating at scale.

Leverage matters. Even buyers who never switch save by keeping third party support live in procurement during Oracle renewals.

Recommendations by Role

What to do this quarter

Chief Information Officer

Run a third party support analysis for every Oracle renewal cycle
Decide based on a 5 year TCO model, not list price discount
Keep at least one third party support engagement live in procurement

Procurement

Solicit pricing from Rimini Street and Spinnaker before every Oracle renewal
Use the third party quote as evidence in Oracle negotiations
Refuse to commit to Oracle support without comparing the alternative

Architecture

Identify Oracle workloads that depend on Premier patch cadence
Identify Oracle workloads that can run on stable releases
Document patch dependency for every Oracle product in the estate

The Framework

Eight ideas

1. The Pricing Math

Rimini Street and Spinnaker price at roughly 50 percent of Oracle support. Multi year contracts, ramp pricing, and bundling further reduce. The savings are real.

2. What Transfers

Third party support does not affect license ownership. You keep the perpetual license. You change who provides support, patches, and updates.

3. What You Lose

Oracle patches require active Oracle support. Third party providers create their own patches. The patch cadence and content differ.

4. Provider Comparison

Rimini Street is the largest. Spinnaker (Origin) is the second. Each has different strengths in Database, Apps, Middleware, and JDE. Compare on coverage.

5. Legal Landscape

Oracle vs Rimini cases settled the core legal questions. Third party support is legitimate. Specific contract language varies. Read your Oracle contract.

6. Cloud Workloads

Third party support for Oracle in OCI is more complex. Third party support for Oracle in AWS and Azure is straightforward. Validate per workload.

7. The Leverage Play

Even buyers who never switch save by keeping third party support live in procurement. Oracle compresses 15 to 25 percent on support when the alternative is real.

8. The Decision Framework

Score every Oracle product on patch dependency, business criticality, and contract terms. Decide per product, not for the estate. The mixed strategy is often the right answer.

Reference

Acronyms

TPSThird Party Support

RSRimini Street

JDEJD Edwards

OCIOracle Cloud Infrastructure

ULAUnlimited License Agreement

TCOTotal Cost of Ownership

Methodology & Sources

This white paper draws on Redress Compliance engagements, public vendor documentation, and the active Redress benchmark program.

About the Author

Fredrik Filipsson

Co Founder, Redress Compliance

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Oracle Third Party Support: A CIO Decision Playbook

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