Feds brag about hefty Oracle discount – licensing experts smell a lock-in

The US General Services Administration (GSA) has announced an agreement with Oracle it claims offers a 75 percent discount on the vendor's license-based technology.

However, experts have pointed out that heavy discounts are commonly offered to Oracle customers, and a 75 percent discount might not be as good as it sounds. Big Red can lock customers into deals stipulating that any attempt to reduce Oracle usage can see discounts disappear and prices rise.

As part of the arrangement, the GSA has agreed to other base discounts for Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) services including the vendor's latest database, Oracle Database 23ai. The agreement eliminates data egress fees and provides pricing parity with commercial offerings, a statement said. The Register has asked the GSA how this was benchmarked.

In 2023, analysis by IT procurement consultant Michael Garland found that Oracle and Microsoft get at least 25 percent and 30 percent ...