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Under Oracle Corp.s new “Lifetime” support policy, “life” means five years. But just like hospital patients with good insurance plans and feeding tubes, additional support can be had—for a price.
Oracle on Tuesday detailed its previously announced Lifetime Support Policy for its own, PeopleSoft, J.D. Edwards, Siebel and other acquired applications.
Lifetime Support is offered at three levels. The first level, Premier Support, provides maintenance and support of Oracle technology and applications for five years from their general availability date.
Premier Support includes product updates; fixes and security alerts; tax, legal and regulatory requirements; certification with new third-party products; upgrade scripts; major releases; and technical support.
For an additional, unnamed fee, you can buy another three years of life for your applications. This support level, which Oracle is calling Extended Support, delivers access to upgrades to the next generation of products. Extended Support is only available for select releases, however, which Oracle did not list.
The third level, Sustaining Support, gives customers access to major product and technology releases and technical support, including access to online support tools, knowledge bases and call center technical support, for as long as customers license their software.
Oracle wasnt forthcoming about pricing, although Oracle OpenWorld showgoers often asked, referring to current support policies that cost some 22 percent of the total software licensing fees.