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Software Asset Management• 4 min read

Caution Trap: The New Oracle Java Metric

Dr. Matthias Schuchardt

Head of Business Development

January 15, 2025
Caution Trap: The New Oracle Java Metric
Key takeaways

"Oracle now charges for Java based on the total number of employees, not users. This can increase costs tenfold. Switching to OpenJDK is often the only economic solution."

For a long time Java was "free". Then came the subscription. Now comes the "Employee" metric. Oracle has radically simplified the licensing model – in favor of its own revenue.

What does "Employee" mean exactly?

It doesn't count who uses Java. It counts:
1. All full-time employees
2. All part-time employees
3. All external consultants and contractors who use company systems.

For a company with 10,000 employees, of which only 50 use Java, this model is catastrophic.

Our Recommendation

Check your Java installations immediately. Migrate workloads to OpenJDK (e.g. Adoptium, Amazon Corretto) before the next audit letter arrives.

FAQ

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Our experts are happy to advise you, with no obligation.

Java SE is chargeable for many commercial uses. Often only development environments or certain older versions are free, depending on the exact Oracle contract.
This is a licensing model where all employees of the company must be licensed, regardless of whether they actually use Java. This also applies to part-time workers and contractors.
Oracle Java Audit Licensing