Oracle’s extended support – when is it free of charge

It’s such a simple, basic and old question I got from a colleague: “Do you have to pay for extended support?”.  And if so, how much I have to pay for it. So basic and yet… always have to check again  the waived support, what prices and where to find this information. It’s getting more important for Oracle Database 11g, which is at the end of the ‘waived’ support.

What kind of support you actually get in premier, extended or sustained support is mentioned in the lifetime support policy site.

What does it say about Extended Support:

• Puts you in control of your Database, Middleware, and Applications upgrade strategy by providing additional maintenance and upgrades for Oracle Database, Oracle Fusion Middleware, and Oracle Applications for an additional fee.

O.k. you have to pay for it. But at what timeframe? In the life-time-support document it is stated that it depends on the General Availability Date of a specific release.

• .Premier Support provides a standard five-year support policy for Oracle Technology products. You can extend support for an additional three years with Extended Support for specific releases or receive indefinite technical support with Sustaining Support.

The pricelist states:

Customers with current Software Updates, License & Support can support their product for a further 3 years, past the initial 5 years from the general availability date of the product, by purchasing Extended Support. Extended Support fees are applied to the desupported Oracle programs only.

Extended Support fees consist of the prior year’s fee for Software Updates & Support plus the applicable renewal adjustment, plus an additional fee based on the year. Additional fees are as follows:

• Year 6 after product release: 10% of current year’s Software Update License & Support
• Year 7 after product release: 20% of current year’s Software Update License & Support
• Year 8 after product release: 20% of current year’s Software Update License & Support

Extended Support offers the following:

• Updates, fixes and security alerts
• Tax, legal and regulatory updates
• Upgrade scripts Technical support Major product and technology releases

But sometimes Extended Support is ‘waived’, like in the case of Oracle Database 11g. The release is actually in Extended Support, but you don’t have to pay for it. Details on Extended Support fee waivers for all releases can be found in Oracle Software Technical Support Policies in section 3 “Lifetime Support” subtitle “Exceptions”

Resources:

Oracle Life time support:  https://www.oracle.com/support/lifetime-support/index.html 

Oracle Life time support policy: https://www.oracle.com/us/assets/lifetime-support-technology-069183.pdf 

Technology price list: http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/pricing/technology-price-list-070617.pdf

Technology lifetime support policy: http://www.oracle.com/us/support/library/057419.pdf 

Regardz..