This week, our CTO Gustavo Gonzalez met with Cliff Godwin, Senior Vice President of Applications Development at Oracle Corporation. Cliff talked about important updates for Oracle EBS and Oracle Database users.
In this blog, you’ll find the key takeaways from that meeting and what these mean for you as an EBS customer.
Update on Oracle EBS
As a reminder, there is NOT going to be an EBS Release 12.3. That is because of the move to the “continuous innovation model for the 12.2 Release” as announced in October of 2018.
This has changed the planning approach for most of the EBS customers.
With the “Continuous Innovation” model for the 12.2 release, Oracle will be providing support and regular updates that can deliver new application functionality and feature enhancements, as well as underlying technology stack updates and fixes that have undergone thorough testing without a major upgrade.
Premier Support for Oracle EBS Continuous Innovation Releases will be provided through the “Premier Support Through At Least” December 2030. At Oracle’s discretion, the “Premier Support Through At Least” December 2030 may be extended in one-year increments. Oracle currently has no plans to end Premier Support on the Oracle EBS Continuous Innovation Releases. However, if it is no longer feasible for Oracle to continue to provide Premier Support for these products, then Oracle reserves the right not to extend the “Premier Support At Least Through” date and the existing date will be set as the End Date for Premier Support.
What does this mean for an Oracle EBS customer?
Many companies were waiting to upgrade their EBS systems 11i or 12.1 to Release 12.3 (when available) avoiding having to upgrade to Release 12.2 and then another step. That is no longer the case, which made everyone rethink the strategy moving forward.
The current Support Timeline for Oracle EBS is:
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Source: Oracle Lifetime Support Policy For the current version and the Continuous Innovation for Release 12.2 is:
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Source: Oracle Lifetime Support Policy This means that all the customers currently using EBS12.1 will need to either upgrade to 12.1 or move to the Cloud and be live and operational before December 31st, 2021.
By upgrading to Release 12.2, they will have the premier support until at least December 2030.
On the Oracle Database Side
In addition to the above, the Extended Support for Oracle Database 12.1 is coming to an end by July 2021.
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Sources: Oracle Lifetime Support Policy , Oracle Software Technical Support Policies
Due to the certification timing of Oracle E-Business Suite with Oracle Database versions beyond 12.1, Oracle has waived Extended Support fees for Oracle Database 12.1 and 11.2 for Oracle Database licenses used for Oracle EBS through December 2020. As mentioned by Cliff, Oracle development is currently working on certification of EBS with database versions 19c which, will be delivered in the next few months.
This means that customers running E-Business Suite with database versions 12.1 and below will have to upgrade their database before 12/2020 to avoid paying extra support fees.
Leveraging the Latest Innovations
Finally, Cliff highlighted the benefits for the business side, which include the new features and modernization that are being delivered in the latest 12.2.x “Continuous Innovation” releases, such as Command Centers and changes in the new HTML pages.
What Can You Do?
Modernizing your ERP system to drive innovation and focus on your differentiators is a journey that should be custom-tailored to your IT & business needs.
IT Convergence can help you identify the best path forward and recommend the optimal technology roadmap.
Our ERP Roadmap Assessment will provide you with:
- ERP Best Practices and Recommendations to Drive Efficiency
- Strategy for Data Capture & Cleansing to Support Analytics
- Evaluation of Oracle On-Premise Environment & Recommendations
- Roadmap for Your EBS and Oracle Cloud: Optimal Future State
