What Is an Oracle ULA (Unlimited License Agreement)?

The short answer: An Oracle ULA, or Unlimited License Agreement, is a contract in which you pay Oracle an upfront fee to deploy as much as you need of a defined set of Oracle products for a fixed term, usually three to five years. At the end of the term you either certify what you have deployed, which turns it into perpetual licenses, or renew. A ULA can save money, but the contract is written to benefit Oracle, so its terms and its exit need planning.

What is an Oracle ULA?

• Oracle ULA is ‘the all you can eat option’ from Oracle.
• ULA stands for Unlimited License Agreement.
• Pay an upfront fee to Oracle and use as much of the identified products for a fixed period of time.

This licensing option, one of the most popular for Oracle customers, can be both beneficial and turn out to be very risky.

To go straight to the exit, read our Oracle ULA certification guide and the Oracle ULA exit process.

Key features of an Oracle ULA

The key points to remember about an Oracle Unlimited License Agreement are:

1. The Oracle ULA is a contract in which the customer pays license fees upfront for future use.
2. The customer can use only a defined set of products.
3. There is a fixed time period (or term) during which the products can be deployed.
4. Allows for unlimited use of these set of products during the term of the agreement/contract.
5. The customer has the right to claim all the deployed products as ‘perpetual licenses’ at the end of the term.

Common misconceptions about the Oracle ULA

There are quite a few misconceptions about the Oracle ULA. Some of these are propagated by sales people while quite a few are because of ‘misunderstanding’ the contract documents. Some of them are listed below:

Misconception 1: Oracle ULA has no risks.
The truth: The Unlimited License Agreement has many legal and commercial risks. Some of these risks are detailed later in the ULA FAQ.

Misconception 2: Oracle ULA contracts are drawn in favor of the customer
The truth: We have heard this many times from our customers, and it is absolutely not true. The ULA contract document, like most other publisher-created contracts, is heavily slanted to benefit Oracle.

Misconception 3: Oracle ULA provides flexibility.
The truth: The answer here is a ‘Yes’ and a ‘No’. There is flexibility for certain points like deployment or unlimited usage during the term of the ULA. There is no flexibility at the end of the term, in the case of mergers/acquisitions/divestiture, usage of additional products, etc.

Misconception 4: Oracle ULAs lower the TCO in the long run.
The truth: This is a misconception of many of our clients. While in the ‘long-run’ we are all dead, the Unlimited License Agreement is intended to be more expensive for customers.

Misconception 5: Customers cannot exit the Oracle ULA.
The truth: This is not true though sales-reps try to seed this doubt in the mind of the customer. We have helped a very large number of our clients ‘certify or exit the Unlimited License Agreement’

Sheshagiri Anegondi answers ten more in Oracle ULA: 10 things customers get wrong, or you can contact our Managing Partner, Sheshagiri Anegondi, directly. He worked at Oracle from 1998 to 2015 and wrote the book Licensing Oracle.

Benefits of an unlimited license agreement

• One deal. You do not need to negotiate for additional licenses during the term.
• Room to deploy. You can install large numbers of licenses without an immediate spend for each one.
• No license audits on the covered products. During the term you do not need to worry about license audits for the specified set of products.

Best practice

1. If you are considering a ULA, take advice from an objective source. Do not rely only on the Oracle sales team or on your internal technical experts.
2. If you have already signed one, monitor usage constantly.
3. Have an expert vet the contract terms so that the risks are reduced.

Our list of what customers get wrong about the ULA is a good place to start. Oracle also sells a version with no end date; we compare the two in Oracle ULA or PULA.

Questions we are asked about the unlimited license agreement

Is an unlimited license agreement really unlimited?

Only for the products named in the contract, and only until the term ends. Anything outside the list is licensed as usual.

What does an Oracle ULA cost?

The fee depends on the products, the term and the negotiation. We explain how it is built in how an Oracle ULA is priced.

What happens at the end of the term?

You certify your deployment or you renew. Certification turns what you deployed into perpetual licenses.

Oracle ULA glossary

Accelerated Certification Date

The Accelerated Certification Date is the preponed date of certification when the customer:

• Breaches any of the Unlimited Deployment Terms of the Oracle ULA.
• Gets acquired by another entity.

Certification Date

• The Certification Date is the date on which the customer has to submit the details of the ULA products installed before the end of the term of the ULA.
• The certification date is generally 30 days after the end of the ULA term

Certification Process

• The Certification Process is the set of actions to be taken on the certification date.
• The main activity is to submit the list of installations of the Oracle product.

The certification process also defines what can be certified and which installations cannot be certified.

Certified Deployment

The Certified Deployment is the number of licenses installed and certified by a C-level executive of the company.

Oracle will need to verify the numbers (either by discussion or by a formal audit). After verification, Oracle will grant perpetual license to the customer.

Converted and Replaced Licenses

• Converted and Replaced Licenses are the list of all the versions of the ULA products that had been procured by the customer before entering into the Unlimited License Agreement. These licenses are converted into the ULA product list.
• Oracle says that customers will not have the right to use these licenses & instead use only the licenses under the ULA. This has no material impact on usage (because these licenses are replaced by the same products in the ULA).
• Customers will need to continue to pay the support price they were paying for the Converted & Replaced Licenses.
• To sum up on the treatment of license & support for the converted & replaced licenses:
  • The Converted & Replaced Licenses become null & void
  • The support for converted & replaced will need to be continued to be paid.

Customer Definition

• The Customer Definition Section defines the details of the legal entity(s) that can use the ULA programs. If there are subsidiaries or more than one entity, they will be listed under a separate exhibit. Reference to the exhibit will be made in the customer definition section.
• The customer definition will also provide details of the allowability of additional entities or re-organisation in the customers legal structure.
• Mergers, Acquisitions and Divestitures are generally mentioned in separate sections.

Effective Date

• Unless mentioned otherwise, the Effective Date is the date when the term of the ULA begins.
• The Effective Date can be various of
  • Being explicitly mentioned
  • The date of signing the ULA ordering document
  • If there are multiple dates of signature, then the last signed date of the customer signature.

Fees

• The Fees section defines the details of how the Technical Support Fees are calculated.
• This section also informs the details of any amounts of unused support that will be credited back to the customer.

License Definitions & Rules (LDR)

• The License Definitions & Rules can either be in the form of a booklet or a sub-set of the booklet.
• This document defines the license metrics and rules used by different Oracle products.
• The LDR can either be included as an exhibit or referenced through a hyperlink.

Omitted Licenses

• The Omitted License section informs the customer that if any license procured earlier are (inadvertently) missed out and not listed in the Converted & Replaced Licenses, they will be added later.
• The customer is also informed that the support for the Omitted Licenses will need to be paid.

Ordered Programs

• The Ordered Programs informs which programs are for use in unlimited numbers.
• The section references the initial list of programs.

Technical Support

• This section informs the customer that the Software Update License & Support must be renewed annually.
• Generally, the annual fee is maintained at the same price during the term of the ULA. This is also mentioned in the Technical Support section of the Ordering Document.

Territory

• The section defines the geographic territories ( country names, worldwide, regions etc.) where the programs can be
• Installed
• Used

Total Support Stream

• This section defines the meaning of the total support stream as the total of
  • The existing support for the earlier procured licenses (this is the Converted & Replaced licenses)
  • The support for the licenses procured under the ULA.
  • Any future licenses procured because of mergers or acquisitions.

Unlimited Deployment Period

• The Unlimited Deployment Period is the period starting from the effective date of the order and the number of years (or months) that defines the end of the ULA term.
• This is the period during which the customer can deploy the programs included in the ULA.

Unlimited Deployment Right

• The Unlimited Deployment Right is the right given to the customer to deploy and use the included programs in an unlimited number (of the corresponding license metric) during the unlimited deployment period.
• This right gets terminated on the end of the ULA term.

Waiver of Extended Support Fees

• It is possible that some of the programs included in the ULA might move out of Premier Support and move into Extended Support.
• Generally, Extended Support is provided at an additional support fee.
• When the product is included in a ULA, Oracle waives the collection of the extended support fee during the term of the ULA.