*** 06-Sep-10 – Some minor edits were made to this story post publication to clarify certain aspects. These edits can be seen in italics in the story.
With Oracle’s acquisition of Sun Microsystems, the company made changes to its software support structure. As part of those changes, apparently gone was the ability for customers to purchase new Oracle support contracts Oracle’s support service for the Solaris operating system on non-Oracle Sun x86 hardware. Oracle of course continued to honor existing support contracts. More recently, other companies such as IBM and Hewlett-Packard, who had agreements with the old Sun Microsystems to provide Solaris support directly, withdrew from sale saw the withdrawal of these services. Some As a result some saw this move as Oracle’s intention to lock Solaris into its own hardware platforms. However, recent developments have seen this situation change.
It is not clear if it was Oracle’s intention initially to not support Solaris on other x86 hardware platforms once existing contract expired. If it was, the company appears to have been listening to the market reaction and recently announced new services for sale that enable Solaris to be run on third-party hardware and most importantly, be backed by Oracle service and support.
Recently Oracle also announced new deals with HP and Dell that allows the companies to sell Solaris with their hardware platforms. But this is only part of the story. Solaris can also now be certified on any x86 hardware platform, as long as it passes the certification process. And with certification comes the ability to get Solaris support direct from Oracle.
What is different from before the merger is that Oracle intends to offer support directly to all users. In the past for example, other companies would have provided front-line support. But now Oracle will take on that role and thus keep a direct relationship with all non Sun hardware x86 Solaris customers as a result.
Any x86 server can apply for Solaris certification. If the server isn’t already certified on the Oracle Solaris OS: Hardware Compatibility List, the certification process involves the client downloading and running the Hardware Certification Test Suite (HCTS) application that will test the hardware configuration to ensure it is compatible with the Solaris operating system. And if it passes, the user is eligible to purchase Solaris support direct from Oracle for that server.
The Solaris service for non-Oracle hardware has the same feature set (hours of operation and response times etc.) as that for support on Oracle Sun hardware. However, the pricing model for Oracle Solaris Premier Subscription for Non-Oracle Hardware is different. For Oracle hardware, the company prices support as a percentage of the cost of the purchase price of the hardware and for non-Oracle hardware that is obviously not feasible. Instead, Oracle has chosen to go with a price per socket model as per the table below.
| Oracle Solaris Premier Subscription for Non-Oracle Hardware | USD List |
| (1-4) Socket Server, per processor socket | $1,000 |
| (5+) socket Server, per processor socket | $2,000 |
The chart above provides an indication of Oracle Solaris Support pricing under differing circumstances, such as whether the support is on Oracle or non-Oracle hardware, as well as different sized servers.There are three groups represented on the chart.
Oracle Premium Support for Operating Systems (Oracle HW*)
This is the operating system only support provided if a client has Oracle Sun hardware. The price of support is a function of the overall cost of the server and so will vary from what is represented on the chart. We have assumed a typical price based on configurations featured in IDEAS Competitive Profiles, for three types of servers. See the footnote at the bottom of this article for more details. The actual price may vary, if the combination of configuration and discounts results in a higher or lower purchase price. Support for this service is charged at 8% of the net (or discounted) total purchase price of the system.
Oracle Solaris Premier Subscription for Non-Oracle Hardware (non-Oracle HW)
This central group represents the newly announced service , for support on non-Oracle hardware. Here support is a fixed fee regardless of the configuration and based on the number of processor sockets. The prices on the chart above charts represent the maximum charges for each system type, assuming all processor sockets are populated. Oracle has chosen to charge a premium for servers of greater than 4-sockets, at $2,000 per processor socket, compared to $1,000 per socket. This is why there is an apparent jump between the 4-socket and 8-socket prices. There are twice as many processors at a higher price per socket. But as the chart shows, this premium is in line with the movement in support charges when one moves from a 4-socket to 8-socket server in the Oracle Sun Fire product line.
Oracle Premium Support for Systems (Oracle HW + SW*)
The third (right hand) group represents the combined hardware and software support on Oracle hardware, available with Oracle Premium Support for Systems. Again the pricing is based on the same set of ‘sample’ configurations used for the Oracle Premium Support for Operating Systems support above. This level of service is priced at 12% of the net total purchase price of the system and the actual service price may vary depending on the specific configuration.
The Bottom Line
- Based on industry feedback it would seem that Oracle has moved to correct a perceived gap in its support coverage created by the changes it made to Solaris support services soon after the Sun Microsystems acquisition.
- With this change, the company acknowledges that some people may want to run Solaris on non-Sun hardware and so is providing way for them to just do that and still have access to Oracle support services.
- Significantly, Oracle has retained a direct relationship with these non-Sun hardware clients, which gives it a channel to directly market Oracle’s wider range of products and services into the future.
* Configuration Pricing Assumptions:
The service prices in the chart for Oracle Premium Support for Systems & Operating Systems are based on sample Oracle Sun server configurations fully populated with processors. The prices in the chart have assumed a typical USD list price based on configurations featured in IDEAS Competitive Profiles, for three types of servers;
- 2-socket – Sun Fire X4170 M2 (1U) Xeon X5670 2.93GHz: Solaris: (2ch/12co) - $10,000
- 4-socket – Sun Fire X4470 (3U) Xeon X7560 2.26GHz: Solaris: (4ch/32co) - $45,000
- 8-socket – Sun Fire X4800 (5U) Xeon X7550 2.0GHz: Solaris: (8ch/64co) - $125,000
If the configurations were to change, such as featuring less processors or more or less memory, disk or I/O, and the price for the hardware was to go up or down from these values, the service prices would change accordingly. Because the service charges are based on the net (or discounted) system service price, the level of discount will also affect the final service price outcome. This is in contrast with the Oracle Solaris Premier Subscription for Non-Oracle Hardware support, which is a function of how many processors are installed in the system, and thus the price will not vary with the addition or subtraction of other items such as disk, I/O and memory.
More details on Oracle’s products and services are available in Competitive Profiles. Competitive Profiles (CP) is a continuous, global information service that provides comprehensive coverage of the features, pricing, and performance characteristics of a wide range of enterprise IT products and services. Updated daily and delivered through a web browser, Competitive Profiles couples a rich online database of product and services information with a powerful suite of interactive analysis tools. This robust combination offers a wealth of information and comparative capabilities to meet a broad array of IT decision support needs.
Tiffany, thanks for the question.
Oracle Solaris Premier Subscription for Non-Oracle x86 Hardware is available from Oracle or from official Oracle resellers. But it is important to note that all support is provided by Oracle directly.
Also, in addition to the technical support, this service includes product updates and fixes as well as upgrades. You may be able to find a third party to provide some level of technical support, but they won’t be able provide the updates/fixes and upgrades. So, it is my understanding that you need a support contract with Oracle in order to receive patches/fixes and upgrades.
Finally, I think you need a support contract in order to just be able to run the operating system on non-Oracle HW. Oracle describes a feature of this service as:
"Subscription license to run Oracle Solaris on any certified x86 system".
This implies to me that you need this support to be able to run the operating system software on non-Oracle HW in the first place.
See the Features tab at the following URL:
http://www.oracle.com/us/products/servers-storage/solaris/non-sun-x86-081976.html
Gary
Posted by: Gary Burgess | June 30, 2011 at 10:13 PM
I am trying to determine maintenance support options and I am wondering, is Oracle Solaris Premier Subscription for Non-Oracle x86 Hardware available through resellers or only directly from Oracle Corporation? Or perhaps are there other vendors who will provide software maintenance for an Oracle Solaris operating system being ran on non-Oracle hardware? Thank you for your time if you are able to answer the question.
Posted by: Tiffany | June 30, 2011 at 08:29 AM