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Official Doc Reveals Oracle's Cloud Rules
itwbennett writes "In an official document that is both 'confidential' and publicly available on Oracle's website, the company lays out its cloud policies. Most of the policies follow industry standards, but then there are a few that should give customers pause. Like the one that allows Oracle to turn off access to accounts in the event of a dispute or account violation."
It's not your cloud. You inherently have to play by their rules.
Like the one that allows Oracle to turn off access to accounts in the event of a dispute or account violation.
OMG you mean they can disable my service if I violate their usage terms or fail to pay them? What an outrageous policy!
Like the one that allows Oracle to turn off access to accounts in the event of a dispute or account violation.
So if you violate the ToS they cut off your access to service? Yeah, and? I can find you hundreds of sites that have similar terms.
Having been on the other side of this policy, I'd have to disagree with your sentiment. It's cloud services... So they have you by the short hairs. When the renewal comes up and they CHANGE the contract... as a customer you really only have one weapon, and that's to withhold the check. "We're not paying you until this contract isn't screwing us" and they they use this clause... "We're going to shut off your service if you don't agree to these new terms and pay up" And I'm not talking about withholding the pay for the service you have right now. Usually these contracts are signed in October or so for the following year... and they will threaten to turn off your service NOW if you don't agree and abide by their new "offer" for next year. They argue that you must draw up terms of disconnection or sign a new deal... if you fail to do either you're in violation of their agreement because you need to give proper notice... Oracles a bitch when it comes to contracts.
why anyone would put anything critical in Oracle's hands is beyond me
Snowden and Manning are heroes.
Dumb ass, here's a clue for you. Don't put you and your company is a position vulnerability in the first place and you won't have to worry.
How do you have an internet presence without putting yourself in the hands of some provider that can cut you off if you don't pay?
Unless you build your own datacenter in your own building (not leased). have your own power plant (wouldn't want the power company to be able to cut you off), have multiple internet connections from different carriers, how can you avoid being beholden to another company's terms of use?
Unless you build your own datacenter in your own building (not leased). have your own power plant (wouldn't want the power company to be able to cut you off), have multiple internet connections from different carriers, how can you avoid being beholden to another company's terms of use?
Keep your code and your data backed up somewhere you have access to them. When somebody tries to screw you over with a dodgy contract, commission the necessary hardware from somewhere else and deploy your code. Cutover to the new system, and tell your old provider to go to hell.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean there isn't an invisible demon about to eat your face
I'm an infrastructure architect. My rule is no oracle unless you can prove to me you really need it and there's no alternative. Oracle always tries to screw you over with their licensing and their pricing.
Dumb ass, here's a clue for you. Don't put you and your company is a position vulnerability in the first place and you won't have to worry.
HA!
Spoken as someone who has never had a cost accountant and or/addition to a PHB up your ass about wasting money, needing business cases for every action/reaction, and following trends on the latest cost saving measures, or even worse listens to their sales people FIRST and then dictating to you what needs to be done without hearing your input.
Truth be told, lots of business people are already feeling like they are being held hostage by their own IT group and running to Whatever-As-A-Service is like The Great Escape for them. To them IT is like power and fedex, they just want it done and they don't see a reason to keep that cost center in-house.
The fact that business users require business cases shows that they are being rational and don't fall easily for the latest gimmick. It's a good thing. What is not good is feeling threatened by this approach instead of using that opportunity to streamline the internal IT offering. (And this just between us, your point about Oracle raising rates by 350% is FUD - it's not a nice mode to fallback on as experienced business users will smell it from a mile away).
The cloud providers are just getting started; they have nice brochures, case studies and satisfied customers to call upon. If you think the internal IT department is a better option for the business it's up to you to make your point; you even have the benefit of being the incumbent. And if you don't like that culture, quit and send your resume to Oracle, they'll need people to maintain the servers where your former employer is moving all their stuff like everyone else.
lucm, indeed.
why anyone would put anything critical in Oracle's hands is beyond me
And where exactly would you rather put it? for your convenience here is an overview of the main database cloud offerings:
1) Oracle
2) Microsoft SQL Azure
3) EnterpriseDB (Postgresql)
4) Amazon RDS (MySQL)
5) A bunch of NoSQL providers (like MongoLab)
Granted, Oracle has the worst SLA in all these offerings but until IBM comes out with a DB2 Cloud service, Oracle is still ranked near or at the the top of that list. And anyways if you read the fine prints in any of those SLAs you'll see that the penalty for downtime is peanuts, like it is almost always the case in IT [1]; the real question is who you trust the most, not who puts the most 9s in their ads.
It's easy to bash a product without coming up with a relevant alternative. Let's see what you propose.
[1] One exception: high-end Hitachi SANs that come with a 100% uptime SLA by contract - a terrific peace of mind if you don't mind the hefty price tag.
lucm, indeed.
What I don't get is why there is a demand for the "cloud" anyway. Storage has never been cheaper, and internet access never more pervasive. If you can't store your data on your multi-gigabyte devices and move it to your other multi-gigabyte devices yourself through your internet provider, there's something wrong somewhere.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
When the renewal comes up and they CHANGE the contract...
Oracle: Pray I don't alter it any further...