Nearly 3 out of 4 Oracle Java users say they've been audited in the past 3 years

Summary

A survey of 500 IT asset managers in organizations that use Oracle Java has found that 73 percent have been audited in the last three years. Deal to 'save' UK colleges £45M in Oracle Java licensing fees followed audit requests READ MORE At the same time, nearly eight out of 10 Oracle Java users said they had migrated, or planned to shift, to open source Java to try to avoid the risk and high costs of the dominant vendor's development and runtime environments. Oracle introduced a paid subscription for Java in September 2018, and in January 2023, it decided to switch its pricing model to per employee rather than per user, creating a steep price hike for many users. In July 2023, Gartner recorded users experiencing price increases of between two and five times when they switched to the new licensing model. Two years later, the survey conducted by market research firm Dimensional Research showed only 14 percent of Oracle Java users intended to stick with the vendor's subscription model. The research was commissioned and authored by ITAM Forum, an independent group representing IT asset managers and Azul, which provides open source Java products and services. It points out that Oracle introduced four licensing and pricing policy changes between 2020 and 2023. "To avoid Oracle's price hikes, Java customers must upgrade to the latest Java version every three years to continue receiving free support under the Oracle Java SE Universal Subscription or otherwise migrate to an open-source alternative," the report said. The survey also revealed the cost of audits. While vendors have the right to charge for copyright-protected software, 25 percent of survey participants said complex software configurations make tracking application usage more difficult. At the same time, 29 percent of ITAM professionals reported that their organizations struggle to manage this information, especially when tracking software usage across teams or between on-premises and cloud platforms. More than h...