When Oracle Comes a Knocking, Run Away

Oracle has a new program to "Help" small companies that want to get Pentagon contracts. 

I do not know anything about the specifics of this program, but among software companies that are absolutely abusive toward their customers, 

They are the Hotel California of businesses.

You can check out any time you'd like, but you can NEVER leave.

Do not touch:

Oracle said vendors participating in its Oracle Defense Ecosystem program will have access to the software giant’s office spaces and be able to tap its expertise on navigating the Pentagon’s procurement processes. Photo: Scott Coleman/ZUMA Press

Oracle is unveiling a program that it says will help vendors more easily sell technology, including artificial intelligence, to the Department of Defense.

The program, called the Oracle Defense Ecosystem, is structured to help smaller companies break through the challenges they typically face in selling tech to the Defense Department, said Rand Waldron, Oracle’s vice president of sovereign cloud.

“It is far too hard to serve the American defense enterprise,” Waldron said. “We can provide an easy path for these companies to better get access to the defense market.”

Oracle said vendors participating in its program will have access to Oracle’s office spaces and be able to tap its expertise on navigating the Pentagon’s procurement processes. Participants also will receive a discount to data-mining company Palantir Technologies’ cloud and AI platform, as well as Oracle’s NetSuite business software.

Oracle and Palantir.  Now THERE is an unholy witches' brew.

This is about system lock-in.  The licensing terms will make it almost impossible to terminate the contract, and every year, the costs will keep rising.

The stories about Oracle are legion.

There are literally hundreds of companies that are maintaining Oracle licenses that they no longer use for tens of thousands of dollars a year, because failing to dot or cross a t on termination can result in hundreds of thousands of dollars in penalties and potential lawsuits.