Snow Software for Oracle License Management

This is an independent review of Snow Software for managing Oracle Licensing. This review is part of our Oracle License Management Group Test.

Snow License Manager for Oracle License Management

• Product: Snow License Manager + Oracle Management Option (OMO)
• Version Released: OMO released September 2013 / Snow License Manager 7 released March 2014
• Year Founded / Turnover: 1997/30M Euros
• Total number of customers: “3,200 Snow License Manager customers with around 20 currently using the OMO”

Oracle Management Option Pricing Summary:

1. Oracle Licensing is a core capability of Snow License Manager (no extra charge)
2. OMO adds ability to collect important audit data from Oracle servers on multiple platforms (chargeable option)
3. OMO pricing starts at Euro 53 per server (physical or virtual)
4. SLM pricing starts at Euro 9.60 per device

Independent Review

Snow Software Oracle Management Option (OMO) is a relatively new addition to the Snow License Management platform.

Snow have built a good reputation for desktop SAM and have recently developed a number of features for managing complex licensing programs and datacentre based software publishers, including Oracle.

Snow Software believes that an organization should take a proactive stance towards managing their Oracle software estate and not wait until they are audited to discover their compliance position.

Snow were pragmatic in their positioning of this new Oracle license management solution, suggesting that organizations would probably still need to refer to the skills of an Oracle licensing specialist – but that OMO would speed up and reduce the expense of collecting and interpreting the appropriate data.

Customers can use the Snow Software agent to collect Oracle data from multiple operating systems platforms including AIX, Solaris, Linux, SUSE, Red hat, Windows and HPUX.

Software Asset Managers can use OMO to:

• Identify Oracle database instances, editions and versions
• Manage their Oracle agreements and Oracle orders
• Manage Oracle at a level suitable for their environment (At the Virtual machine level, hypervisor, datacentre, cluster and so on)

Strengths

• Auto-populate the Oracle Server Worksheet with data required for Oracle License Management Services (LMS)
• Well organized, easy to understand and use interface
• Root cause analysis (Not just is a packed switched on but what triggered it to be switched on)
• Competitively priced

Weaknesses 

• At the time of writing – not verified by Oracle
• Current focus is population of the Oracle Server Worksheet, missing overall compliance summary and optimization steps of competitors
• Snow have done very well to come so far with their Oracle Management Option so quickly, already outstripping some incumbents. A great validation of their offering in the market would be the all-important verification from Oracle.

Further Reading:

• Web page: http://www.snowsoftware.com/int/products/oracle-management-option
• Snow OMO fact sheet: http://www.snowsoftware.com/int/documents/data-sheet-snow-oracle-management-option-english
• Snow License Manager fact sheet: http://www.snowsoftware.com/int/documents/data-sheet-snow-license-manager-english

In their own words:

“Snow OMO gives organizations control of their Oracle estate thanks to the ability to collect data and report on all server hardware and configuration, database products and editions, database Options and associated usage, Management Packs and associated usage, feature usage and named users.

Proactive license management reduces costs:

• Manage Oracle Agreements and Orders in Snow License Manager and receive alerts when an agreement is about to expire, avoiding the risk of having to re-purchase licenses. Connect all Oracle Orders to specific Oracle servers to get an instant overview of your Oracle license coverage.
• Connect you oracle orders (oracle licenses) to your oracle servers to see what licenses covers what oracle servers.
• Identify oracle servers that are not covered by an oracle license.
• Identify oracle servers that have been discovered but not yet inventoried.
• Avoid overspend on Options and Management Packs
• View at-a-glance reports on precise data on all the metrics that affect Oracle licensing, including database Options, Management Packs, feature usage and database settings. Reduce cost by removing unused database options and management packs.
• Minimize the risk of over-installation in cluster environments
• Virtualization makes the deployment of servers easy and fast, without considering the cost implications for Oracle licensing. Snow OMO automatically reports and visualizes when an Oracle Server is added to a cluster. This gives the SAM owner the ability to manage changes and avoid costs associated with their Out-of-the-box functionality.
• Save time and resources with automated OSW reporting tool

Get an accurate and transparent view of an organization’s investment in Oracle databases without complicated and time consuming work. The Oracle Server Worksheet (OSW) Report is automatically populated with the required information, including hardware details, partitioning technology, database products, options, management packs and users.”