Vendor help agreements have lengthy been a sticking level for patrons, and the Oracle Functions Limitless (OAU) program isn’t any totally different. The excessive prices and lack of flexibility related to OAU places its worth into query and impacts enterprises working on Oracle E-Enterprise Suite, JD Edwards Enterprise One, PeopleSoft, Siebel CRM, Hyperion, and extra.
As safety stays excessive on the precedence checklist for corporations and IT leaders,1 and more and more so with the rise of cyber-attacks, IT executives are put into a tricky place – looking for the funds to maintain their programs safe whereas having sufficient left to put money into innovation and progress.
Whereas the OAU program offers prospects entry to safety patches and utility updates which can be delivered by way of periodic upgrades at a price of sometimes 22% of the annual license charges, making use of adjustments to software program introduces threat of compatibility points with present functions and customised software program. That, in flip, can result in system crashes, utility errors, degraded efficiency, and downtime.2
These challenges and contradictions are prompting OAU prospects to hunt options – together with third-party help – to scale back value, skip unneeded upgrades and think about strengthening their safety posture with out a dependency on vendor patches.
Rising safety threat and enterprise influence
The safety side can’t be overstated, with safety dangers rising day by day as cyber threats evolve and IT environments increase. Over 40,000 vulnerabilities have been reported to NIST in 2024, a rise of over 10,000 vulnerabilities YoY.3
Breaches are additionally costly. IBM put the newest international common value of a knowledge breach at $4.88 million, a ten% improve over 2023 and the very best complete ever. A lot of that value is reputational in nature, as IBM studies “misplaced enterprise” accounts for 30% ($1.47M) of the prices of a knowledge breach on common. 4
Protection-in-depth and proactive vulnerability administration
A defense-in-depth method is paramount to defending towards safety threats. Most corporations implement a number of ranges of safety utilizing particular options to guard towards particular dangers. Whereas patching particular person vulnerabilities could also be one a part of that technique, another (or complementary) method is to proactively treatment entire classes of weaknesses that result in vulnerabilities.
Rimini Avenue, the worldwide chief of third-party help for Oracle, kinds a partnership with its purchasers and helps them determine such weaknesses. The workforce presents ongoing steerage and detailed, common critiques of purchasers’ safety posture, in addition to proprietary data on find out how to keep protected.
With a protracted historical past courting again to 2005, securing 1000’s of purchasers in tightly regulated industries to handle each their enterprise and technical wants, Rimini Avenue’s safety providing, Rimini Shield™, offers steerage and help in 3 main methods:
- Establishing an advisory relationship. Staying on prime of energetic threats and vulnerabilities calls for assets and experience that organizations typically don’t have. The Rimini Shield workforce frequently tracks cyber threats on a world foundation, offering menace intelligence analysis that offers customers choices for addressing the vulnerabilities they face that go effectively past trade greatest practices.
- Understanding your present safety posture. The Rimini Shield workforce conducts a safety evaluation to guage the chance posture of a consumer’s enterprise software program as effectively present safety controls, community configurations, deployed functions, and insurance policies. It follows and expands upon safety steerage together with the Open-Supply Intelligence framework (OSINT), the Heart for Web Safety (CIS) Benchmarks, and the Protection Info Programs Company Safety Technical Implementation Guides (STIGs).
- Addressing the remaining threat. Some dangers can’t be mitigated by way of hardening steerage or safety patches (if accessible). The Rimini Shield portfolio addresses safety vulnerabilities in addition to the underlying weaknesses that result in these vulnerabilities, providing safety even towards vulnerabilities which have but to be found – and with out requiring adjustments to the software program being protected.
“A proactive protection technique helps to guard towards unknown or yet-to-be-discovered vulnerabilities that may be exploited sooner or later in time,” stated Gabe Dimeglio, SVP & GM of Rimini Shield and Watch Options. “By getting forward of dangerous actors and having a sturdy, confirmed technique to right away fight safety breaches, organizations can assist stop the devastating impacts of cybersecurity breaches and the threats that lie-in-waiting for the proper second to assault.”
Breaking free from vendor help
Many corporations which have elected to modify to third-party help and providers sometimes now not obtain new patches – and so they haven’t seemed again.
For Ricoh, the Japan-based supplier of built-in digital providers, choosing Rimini Help™ and Rimini Shield™ for its Oracle EBS functions proved to be a strong mixture that helped preserve programs safe whereas releasing up crucial assets for different strategic tasks.
“Rimini Avenue presents a pretty service that has saved us a whole bunch of thousands and thousands of yen in improve prices. They supply extremely expert help engineers who can cowl main ERP and database programs and shield them too,” stated Keisuki Hamanaka, Deputy Basic Supervisor, Course of, IT and Information Administration at Ricoh. “Rimini Avenue is the one associate that may help the Japanese market with the high-quality help and safety we want, at a value that aligns with our monetary objectives.”5
The dilemma of what to do about threat mitigation shouldn’t be a barrier to any group’s progress. Rimini Avenue offers organizations a sturdy third-party help choice for turning utility help right into a aggressive benefit.
“Our proactive method reduces help prices, offers crucial safety help, and permits our prospects to take advantage of out of their important utility investments,” Dimeglio says. “It’s a sound different when new enterprise software program options lack any enterprise crucial, and extra precedence tasks may be delivered leveraging these unlocked funds and assets by selecting Rimini Avenue.”
No have to sacrifice innovation for safety
As cyber-crime continues to rise, IT leaders should evolve their safety technique. Embracing a proactive, multi-layered method to defending enterprise software program investments, together with Oracle functions, can present organizations with peace of thoughts. On the identical time, the method frees up assets wanted to put money into the strategic IT initiatives that matter most to the enterprise.
With the correct third-party help, now not do IT leaders want to decide on between safety and innovation. Comply with the trail of a whole bunch of Oracle purchasers who’ve achieved flexibility, safety and deep financial savings with Rimini Avenue.
To study extra about how Rimini Avenue can assist companies safe their Oracle functions, go to the Rimini Protect page.
1CIO: 7 tough IT security discussions every IT leader must have
2 Linford & co LLp: Navigating the Risks of Patch Management: Security & Stability in IT Systems
4IBM. (2024). Cost of a Data Breach Report 2024