Inventa - Oracle Database & Option Reporting Tool

Oracle Database Options are a significant cause of non-compliance, and are some of the most common sources of over-deployment seen by Version 1’s experts.

Because they can rarely be uninstalled or disabled, placing controls on, and educating DBAs, developers and power users is practically impossible in any enterprise. Additionally, Oracle does not make a reliable mechanism available for customers to determine their option usage in-house; customers usually rely instead on home-grown scripts which rarely meet the thorough levels of checking performed by Oracle’s own audit scripts.

Most enterprises are in the following position:

  • It is not possible to stop people from using database options
  • Cross-Team education regarding database option usage is onerous
  • Identifying which options are in use and being confident that results would match Oracle’s is a lottery
  • Oracle is just one of your complex enterprise vendors, it is not possible to understand all their mechanisms, rules or policies

Inventa - Oracle Database & Option Reporting Tool

Version 1’s Inventa – is a monitoring and reporting add-on for your Oracle Database and Option usage. Inventa provides a comprehensive suite of queries based on our extensive experience and knowledge of Oracle’s own processes. Inventa contains knowledge and IP to allow customers to make their own accurate independent measurements of option usage. With a wide range of extra cost options being available from Oracle 8 onwards, and the lack of ability to disable/uninstall most options reliably, the risk to any enterprise is obvious. Many enterprises do not know they have a problem until they are audited by Oracle; Version 1 has seen customers receiving claims of tens of millions of pounds in non-compliance of database options alone.

Key Features

Accuracy
Independently created, accurate database option usage measurement
Created by Experts
Based on our extensive licensing and DBA expertise and provides a validation of license requirements

Versatile
Covers database versions 8-18c
Mitigate Risk
De-risk your estate and take control of option usage
Dynamic
Available for various tools and standalone, to suit your needs
Traceability
Provenance of usage provided

"You should not assume that you can measure database options reliably or that your current mechanisms reflect your license needs."

Inventa - Oracle Database Option Reporting

Version 1’s Inventa monitoring add-ons are available in a number of offerings, including patterns for deployment with particular tools as well as standalone offerings. The basic package functions can be utilised stand-alone by your own technical teams or you can use them to supplement additional reporting.

For wider service integrations we have a number of deployment mechanisms you can take advantage of or If you have specific integration or option focus needs we can customize the IP to suit each enterprise’s needs and existing toolsets. Version 1 has worked with many enterprise discovery and management tools but also realise that providing SQL and logic in a generic form provides flexibility on estates where estate management toolsets are not mature or unable to access Oracle databases.

Once the Version 1 Inventa add-ons are deployed a customer can easily collect database option usage from their estate and at a glance determine which options are in use and require licensing. Should further information be required, provenance views are available to understand why a database option may appear as in use. This enables in-house remediation of unexpected findings.

In our view, this type of detection provides the following key advantages:

  • Reliable, accurate results
  • Repeatable results to allow regular reporting and variation detection
  • Provenance readily available, providing the chance to remediate findings

How does it work commercially?

Version 1 supplies its monitoring scripts (for a specified platform/standalone) on a license and term basis. Typically, a period of customisation and verification of requirements to match the customer’s needs is provided upfront to ensure the delivered scripts are as required. Support is available and new releases / logic is provided as new database releases are provided by Oracle. We can often provide a proof-of-concept to demonstrate the capability of the tool, with the benefits of choosing Version 1 and Inventa including:

Reduce Cost & Risk
  • Assessment and Advice
  • Risk Reduction
  • Cost Savings/Avoidance
Trusted Advisor
  • Independent
  • Tools Agnostic
  • Experience
Market Leading Expertise
  • Breadth & Scale
  • Technical Background
  • Licence Experts

Experiencing Oracle Compliance Issues? Help is at Hand.

In our experience, all enterprises will benefit and discover unexpected results as part of an engagement with us.  Our Oracle Database Option Reporting scripts are a key part of our expertise and we would encourage all enterprises to discuss their current position / detection methods with us to help them understand limitations / capabilities and risks.

Talk with a Version 1 SAM Expert today. 

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