The short answer: an Oracle PULA, or Perpetual Unlimited License Agreement, works like an Oracle ULA: unlimited deployment of a named set of Oracle products. The difference is time. A ULA runs for a fixed term and ends with certification or renewal; a PULA removes the end date. Oracle presents it as protection from unpredictable fees and audits. Our Managing Partner’s view, below, is that its risks are bigger than a ULA’s.
Oracle PULA vs ULA: the difference
| Oracle ULA | Oracle PULA | |
|---|---|---|
| Term | Fixed, set in the contract | No end date |
| At the end of the term | Certify what you deployed, or renew | No term end to certify against |
| Products | A named set, unlimited during the term | A named set, unlimited with no end date |
| Fees | A licence fee plus annual support | Priced differently, on a yearly fee |
| Where the risk sits | Certification: what you can prove at the end | The fee you are committed to, year after year |
Read more about how a ULA works in what is an Oracle ULA, what you keep after Oracle ULA certification, and how it ends in the Oracle ULA exit process.
When the PULA question comes up
Most companies weigh a PULA at the end of a ULA term, as one of three paths: renew the ULA, convert to a PULA, or certify what was deployed and leave. Our ULA certification and exit work starts from the same test for all three: is your use of the named products still growing?
At one bank, it was not. Oracle quoted $7.1M to renew the bank’s ULA for three years. We counted the deployments against Oracle’s rules and found that growth in the covered products had flattened, so the bank certified instead. The exit and right-sized support came to $2.85M, and the bank kept perpetual rights to everything it had deployed. More results are on our case studies page.
A PULA fails the same test in the same way. If deployment is flat, an unlimited agreement with no end date buys headroom you keep paying for, year after year.
Sheshagiri Anegondi’s view
By Sheshagiri Anegondi, first published in 2015
After the majorly successful campaign over the past 9-10 years of selling the Unlimited License Agreement (ULA), Oracle has now come up with another, seemingly very compelling, proposition called the PULA, the Perpetual ULA.
The PULA removes the time requirement but is priced differently on a yearly fee. The value proposition from Oracle is to minimize the risk of unpredictable yearly fees and software audits.
Prima facie this looks extremely compelling, but the risks are much bigger than in a ULA. Customers have rarely won in a ULA, unless they have really understood how to maximise value and constantly monitored the agreement and usage over the term of the ULA.
The author believes that customers will win even less with a PULA in place.
Always remember, in poker and the ULA, the house rarely loses!
Before you sign either
- Know what you run today. An unlimited agreement only pays if deployment grows. Count it first.
- Read the product list. Only the named products are unlimited. Everything else is licensed as normal.
- Model the fees for ten years. Support is paid every year; compare the total with buying the licences you need.
- Read the contract structure. See the contract structure of an Oracle ULA and how the Oracle ULA price is set.
Questions to put to Oracle before a PULA
- What is the yearly fee, and what can make it rise?
- Which products are named, and can the list change later?
- What happens to the agreement if you buy a company, sell a business or are acquired? Our article on M&A clauses in Oracle ULAs covers the usual traps.
- What do you hold if you stop paying the fee?
Sheshagiri explains the most common misreadings of these agreements in 10 things customers get wrong about the Oracle ULA.
Questions we are asked about the Oracle PULA
What is an Oracle PULA?
A Perpetual Unlimited License Agreement: unlimited deployment of a named set of Oracle products, without the fixed end date of a ULA.
Is an Oracle PULA cheaper than a ULA?
Not by default. A PULA swaps the certification at the end of a ULA for a fee you pay every year. Compare that fee over ten years with certifying your ULA and paying support only on what you have deployed.
What is the difference between an Oracle ULA and a PULA?
A ULA runs for a fixed term and ends with certification or renewal. A PULA has no end date, so there is no certification at the end of a term, and it is priced differently, on a yearly fee.
Sheshagiri Anegondi, our Managing Partner, worked at Oracle from 1998 to 2015 and wrote Licensing Oracle, a 480-page reference on Oracle licensing. More about Sheshagiri. Java is another complex Oracle licensing area; see our Java License Analyzer and Java license review.
Sheshagiri Anegondi
Managing Partner of Rythium Technologies. Seventeen years at Oracle, from 1998 to 2015, in leadership roles including Vice President Sales, after Compaq and Digital Equipment Corporation.
Author of “Licensing Oracle: The Reference Manual for Managing Oracle License Compliance & Procuring Oracle Software, Hardware, Cloud & Services” (2021, ISBN 10: 1639046887).
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