Introduction
2020 events have accelerated cloud application modernization, yet according to Gartner, “despite the increasing popularity of cloud services, enterprises continue to struggle with creating and implementing a comprehensive cloud strategy.”
Cloud application modernization is now part of the “new normal” and in fact, by 2025, it’s estimated that 85% of enterprises will have a cloud-first principle.
Now more than ever, it’s important that you take your cloud application modernization strategy seriously, and in the context of Oracle EBS, it’s important to take action as soon as possible as time is running out to upgrade Oracle 12.1 to 12.2.
In December 2021, Premier Support will be cut off for customers with any version lower than R12.2, putting an end to access to patches, fixes, or updates, most of which are critical to the correct functioning of Oracle EBS.
The failure to update your Oracle EBS instance can expose you to data breaches, which total a global average of $3.85 million USD in 2020, with the highest recorded data breach hitting the $8.64 million USD mark.
Security is also critical when thinking about cloud architecture—not being patched to the latest security levels can leave you vulnerable to attacks. Just last year, Tripwire surveyed 340 information security professionals of which 27% worldwide and 34% in Europe reported they had been breached because of unpatched vulnerabilities.
With numbers like this, we can’t stress enough how important it is that you take action now to upgrade Oracle 12.1 to 12.2 and continue with Premier Support. Failing to upgrade before December 2021 will enter customers into Sustaining Support which is a limited form of support that is far from comprehensive.
We are here to help you with our proven strategy called the “Cloud Smart” upgrade which is a holistic approach that considers the database, operating system, instance architecture, storage, backup, disaster recovery, and security of Oracle EBS to ensure a successful upgrade.
For companies with substantial investments in EBS, we recommend considering a move to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) at the same time as doing the R12.2 upgrade. Of course, there are several ways to achieve this and in this post, we explore the four workstreams of the “Cloud Smart ” upgrade and the three most common approaches you can use depending on your needs.
The “Cloud Smart” workstream approaches
The “Cloud Smart” approach has four workstreams to combine different initiatives into a unified working project. Pooling these initiatives together into a single effort can help you save time, avoid business disruption, reduce test cycles, and save money while moving to the most up-to-date software and infrastructure available.
ITCs proprietary methodology is a result of moving hundreds of workloads to the cloud, allowing clients, for example, to upgrade both databases and operating systems in-flight as an element of the migration to the cloud.
These are the four workstreams of the ITC “Cloud Smart” upgrade:
- CEMLI Remediation.
- The actual R12.2 upgrade effort itself.
- Database upgrade to version 19c.
- The move to OCI.
The ITC “Cloud Smart” upgrade allows you to sequence these four workstreams in a way that makes the best sense for you, based on your business needs.
The first “Cloud Smart” approach involves initiating both the CEMLI Remediation (in 12.1.3) and the build of the OCI tenancy simultaneously. Once the tenancy build to OCI is done, a copy of the 12.1.3 instance with CEMLI Remediation is transferred to OCI as well. The instance is then cloned to virtual machines on OCI which can be configured with updated operating systems, database versions, and the latest security patches. There are three waves of moving the instance to OCI which begin on par with the EBS 12.2 upgrade.
This approach breaks down the overall effort into smaller, more manageable pieces and while it involves more testing cycles, it is less expensive than the next two options we will detail.
The second “Cloud Smart” approach begins with CEMLI Remediation on the existing 12.1.3 instance then proceeds to completing the 12.2 upgrade on-premises before migrating the workload to OCI. This approach works best for clients who want to secure continued active support as soon as possible ahead of the deadline or who are running on versions prior to 12.1.3.
Even though this approach is the most time-effective option, it’s important to note that unsupported Oracle EBS software versions do not cleanly migrate to OCI, but the “Cloud Smart” upgrade helps alleviate and minimize issues that could delay the migration timeline.
The third “Cloud Smart” approach has all four workstreams working in concert simultaneously. The flow looks something like this:
- The OCI tenancy is built,
- The 12.1.3 instance is migrated to OCI,
- The CEMLI Remediation takes place on the migrated instance,
- The 12.2 upgrade takes place.
With this comprehensive approach, your upgraded instance is on OCI and has been fully optimized to include OS and database upgrades, re-architected instances, security patches, purge and archive, etc. Given the effort and complexity involved, this approach is the most time-consuming option but it’s also the most streamlined and efficient one for users as there is only one set of testing cycles (which cover all aspects of the upgrade and the migration) that they need to go through.
Conclusion
As mentioned earlier, these are some of the three most common approaches, but there are many others that you can choose from based on your business and technology drivers. Whether it’s cost, time, test cycles, there’s a right approach for you.
ITC is a seasoned Oracle partner with many years of experience in Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. We’ve successfully migrated hundreds of instances to the public cloud infrastructure, taking full ownership of the migration’s management.
You have a lot to prepare for your 12.2 upgrade, which can be daunting. We can help you put together a robust and reliable plan to reach your EBS upgrade successfully and before time runs out. The time to act is now.
