Oracle SPARC Licensing: How to Remove Digital Transition Roadblocks

Peel back the technology layers that exist behind your public sector organisation’s critical processes, and you’ll invariably encounter an Oracle SPARC server. Since the late ‘80s, SPARC (Scalable Processor Architecture) servers have been powering organisations throughout the world, providing the technology foundations that help them to work efficiently and effectively.

Oracle SPARC servers are utilised heavily throughout the public sector, helping organisations deliver government-driven citizen services. They are stable, secure, and they work – which becomes part of a wider problem.

Many of the Oracle SPARC deployments throughout the public sector were implemented several years ago on local hardware sitting in office-based server rooms. The fact that Oracle SPARC servers continue to work effectively, and form such a critical aspect of delivering citizen services, has made organisations hesitant to transition Oracle applications and databases to cloud services. And this paralysis has been made worse by the high licensing costs often attributed to hosting Oracle on VMware or Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisors.

With digital transformation high on the government’s agenda, Oracle SPARC deployments are in danger of becoming roadblocks to public sector organisations’ cloud adoption journeys. Fortunately, there is a way to transition your Oracle SPARC deployment to a cloud infrastructure without incurring high licensing costs.

Oracle SPARC Licensing

When transitioning across to a cloud hosting environment, the bad news is that moving away from Oracle SPARC can get expensive – fast. As you would expect, Oracle application and database licenses are cheapest when hosted on Oracle hardware or hypervisors, and typically you only have to buy licenses for processors that are being used to run the software.

However, if you host your Oracle deployment on non-Oracle hypervisors – especially within a hyperscale cloud environment – not only do you pay a premium per license but you are also expected to pay for a license per processor in the hypervisor – even processors that are not used to run the software. This is pretty much a nightmare scenario for any public sector organisation wishing to transition to a cloud hosting environment, as the licensing costs alone make the project more or less unfeasible.

This is where Six Degrees comes in. We are one of the only managed service providers in the UK to offer cloud hosting for both Oracle OVM (x86) and Oracle SPARC (non-x86) deployments. Our Oracle SPARC cloud hosting services allow public sector organisations to transition their legacy workloads across to a cloud infrastructure that minimises licensing costs and removes hardware management burden. Our services free up finances that can be put towards additional processors to improve performance, or invested in other digital transformation activities.

Remove Digital Transition Roadblocks

Six Degrees has an enviable track record of helping public sector organisations remove digital transition roadblocks and springboard to the cloud. We are actively working with Central Government and Local Councils throughout the UK to improve the way they deliver citizen services: we recently helped Government Digital Service save up to £42,000 per year. To learn more about how we can remove digital transition roadblocks through Oracle SPARC hosting, get in touch with us.

Purchasing From Six Degrees Through G-Cloud

Public sector organisations can purchase all Six Degrees’ cloud services through the G-Cloud framework. Click the following link and search ‘Six Degrees’ to find all of our G-Cloud listed services: www.digitalmarketplace.service.gov.uk/g-cloud/search