Author: George Phillips, Trainee Sales Consultant, Namos Solutions
Despite the resurgence of LPs and Cassettes, streaming music platforms are becoming a much more popular means of listening to music, with just under a tenth of UK consumer music listening taking place using physical formats on Hi-Fi’s and record turntables. The subscription model boom has seen companies like Spotify and Netflix grow massively, generating billions every year. Increasing accessibility of high speed internet and cloud computing advancement has meant that owning physical copies of your favourite albums and films is becoming unnecessary. Monthly subscriptions provide access to a plethora of music and film instantly available to most internet connected devices. An end to the film and music ownership era has been driven by a shift toward the subscription price model. A shift made possible by cloud computing providers who offer similar payment models for their services.
Akin to the rise of music and film services, businesses are no longer required to purchase physical hardware and maintain their computing infrastructure servers on-site. There appears to be an increasing number of benefits for subscribing to Cloud Computing services vs purchasing and owning an on-premise solution. Despite this, some businesses are required to own an on-premise solution, unsurprisingly nostalgia isn’t one of the main reasons for doing so. For highly data-sensitive organisations a factor that may influence their decision to remain on-premise is security, transparency over the exact geographical location of their data. In contrast, Oracle Cloud data centre locations are not shared with its users, forming the first barrier that makes up part of Oracle’s stringent security program. Oracle offers a wide scope of security across its cloud’s services. One of my future blog posts will discuss Oracle Cloud security in more detail.
I’ve found the pricing structure Oracle offers for its cloud services interesting to learn about during the Fresh Talent program. Being subscription-based bolsters its standing as an attractive option for both new and existing customers. Oracle’s pricing is the same across all regions globally and is flexible depending on what’s required. There are two main pricing structures, Pay As You Go (PAYG) and Annual Universal Credits. Pay as you go involves being charged for the services you use. Very flexible and generally best used whilst determining what your on-going average usage will look like. Annual Universal Credits involves making an upfront annual commitment whist knowing what services you are going to use with an estimated annual or monthly usage. The commitment required for Annual Universal Credits pays dividends in the form of lower pricing vs PAYG. For current On-Premise customers Oracle also offers ‘Bring Your Own Licence’ as a billing option; existing on-premise licences for some services can be used in the Cloud at no extra cost.
From my experience so far, I think what makes Oracle Cloud pricing structures attractive is the flexibility for costs to scale alongside the services you require. Scaling either vertically (the power/size of a single server) or horizontally (the amount of individual instances launched). It’s a powerful feature that allows businesses to harness the exact infrastructure required for their services and pay for what they use without the need to procure hardware.
Whilst I do think there will always be a case for ownership of certain products, personal or enterprise, there is undeniably a shift toward the adoption of a subscription-based model. It’s an interesting shift that can lessen the environmental impact of both business and individual consumers whilst harnessing a highly available and effective solution that costs customers less.
Further Reading
Chapter One: Life as an Oracle FreshTalent Trainee
References
Britons’ love of music is being fed by streaming & physical formats. (n.d.). Retrieved from British Phonographic Industry: https://www.bpi.co.uk/news-analysis/britons-love-of-music-is-being-fed-by-streaming-physical-formats/.
Infrastructure and Platform Services (IaaS/PaaS) Billing Guide. (n.d.). Retrieved from Oracle Help Center: https://www.oracle.com/uk/cloud/bring-your-own-license/faq/universal-credit-pricing.html
Oracle. (2020, December). Oracle PaaS and IaaS Public Cloud Services Pillar Document. Retrieved from Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Service Level Agreement (SLA): https://www.oracle.com/assets/paas-iaas-pub-cld-srvs-pillar-4021422.pdf
About Namos Solutions
Namos Solutions are an award-winning Oracle OPN Modernised Partner specialising in the implementation and support of ERP, EPM and HCM business solutions, both in the Cloud and on-premise.
With global experience together with an impeccable track record, our business is built on our passion for delivering successful business transformation. Passion underpins everything we do at Namos – passionate about delivering beyond expectations, earning trust and building long-lasting relationships with our clients.
Although based in central London, we work wherever our clients need us to be. Many leading organisations located all over the world trust and rely on our expertise to deliver industry-leading business solutions. Namos customers can currently be found in the UK, Europe, Middle East, Asia Pacific, North America and Africa. For more information, please visit www.namossolutions.com or email info@namossolutions.com.
