Oracle offers both term and perpetual licenses for all its products. A perpetual license is a one-time license fee that allows continued use of the software program for as long as the customer complies with all terms of the license agreement.  A term license is for a specific, limited period of time, during which the user is allowed to access and use the software. At the end of the term, the user must stop using the software or extend the term or purchase new licenses through an agreement with the software vendor. Oracle offers annual term licenses for all its

products in 1-year, 2-year, 3-year, 4-year or 5-year terms. Term licenses are a percentage of the perpetual license of a given Oracle product, and the term length (i.e., 1 to 5 years) a customer chooses, determines the percentage amount.

 

Oracle’s technology products are primarily licensed using two metrics: Named User Plus or Processor. The Named User Plus metric is used in environments where users and/or devices can be easily identified and counted. The Processor metric is used in environments where users cannot be easily identified and counted.

 

This metric is used in environments where users can be identified and counted.  Named User Plus includes both humans and non-human operated devices. All human users and non-human operated devices that are accessing the program must be licensed. A non-human operated device can be many things, such as, a temperature monitoring device. It is important to note that if the device is operated by a person, then this person must be licensed.

 

This metric is mostly used in environments where the software users cannot be easily identified or counted, such as internet-based applications. The Processor metric is also used when it is more cost effective than Named User Plus licenses. All processors where the Oracle programs are installed and/or running must be licensed.  The number of required licenses shall be determined by multiplying the total

number of cores of the processor by a core processor licensing factor specified on the Oracle Processor Core Factor Table, which can be found here: Download the Oracle Processor Core Factor Table