In January 2023 Oracle announced changes to the way Java SE is licensed.
Previously with Java SE, customers only needed to license users or servers where the product was deployed, using the Named User Plus or Processor metric. This has now been replaced with the new Employee for Java SE Universal Subscription. What does this mean? The number of licensable deployments or the underlying hardware infrastructure / number of processors is no longer relevant.
So if you only a handful of people licensed for Java SE you could see a massive price increase. The new license model means you now have to license everyone! This means full time, part time, temporary employees, contractors etc. The Oracle policy states this is regardless of whether they are actually using the software or not. This is a significant change and will have a huge financial impact on any organisation licensed for Java SE.
The pricing is only available directly from Oracle and starts at US$15 per employee per month (US$180 per annum). When you look at the website, and click through ‘Buy now’ for employee counts over 250, they say to contact an Oracle Sales Representative but the entry point tier in the price list shows as 1-999 employees.
The SAM Club anticipates Oracle will be actively contacting organisations to discuss usage where the commercial version of Java has been downloaded. Please ensure your employees are aware of this change and anticipate an email along the lines of ‘You’ve downloaded Java SE 10 times and public records show you have 1,000 employees. Based on this information you’re Java licensing costs are US$180,000 per annum. When can we talk…’
For customers that have current Java SE subscriptions, Oracle have said they will allow them to renew under their existing terms and metrics. The SAM Club anticipates Oracle will be proactively conducting audits going forward with several SAM Tools being verified for Java SE (Certero, Flexera, Lime Software, Matrix 42 and USU). These tools will validate the installations based on the renewable licenses and any shortfalls could invoke the new license model as the old license model is no longer available to purchase.
If you are using Java SE within your organisation it is time to urgently reconsider the usage and consider alternative products. Could Java OpenJDK which is still free be an option?
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