Upgrading to E-Business Suite 12.2 just became more attractive

Written by Mike Sowerbutts | Sep 24, 2020 3:35:00 PM

If you are one of the 80% of Oracle E-Business Suite customers who are on R12.1 and you need to upgrade time is running out. Premier Support for Oracle E-Business 12.1 will only be provided until the end of December 2021.

Oracle’s Continuous Innovation model for E-Business Suite 12.2 means that Premier Support for the application will continue until at least 2030, so there is no longer a question around the longevity of the Oracle E-Business Suite platform. This means an upgrade to 12.2 is now a much more attractive proposition for many customers than previously. In addition, Premier Support for the 19c database lasts until March 2023. Upgrading to 19c brings a wealth of new features and product enhancements that can be harnessed along with a 12.2 E-Business Suite environment.

When upgrading to EBS 12.2 and Oracle DB 19c there are a range of technical considerations to factor in. Aside from Enterprise Command Centre (ECC) and additional hardware requirements, you may also need to upgrade to Oracle Linux 7.

If you are running Oracle Linux prior to version 7 then an OS upgrade will be required before upgrading the database. With Premier Support for OL 6 finishing in March 2021, many businesses will be looking to upgrade soon or will risk running on an unsupported platform. Using Claremont’s internal tools, we have already upgraded a large number of OL5 and OL6 customers to OL7.

Customers have a number of options open to them, either to remain on the current release of Oracle EBS, perform an on-premise upgrade, upgrade and move to cloud-based hosting or migrate to an alternative platform, such as Oracle Cloud.

Moving to R12.2 and refreshing on-premise hardware is a viable, cost-effective option as it ensures that Oracle users continue to benefit from continuous new features. However, making the decision to upgrade to R12.2, whilst taking the opportunity to re-platform onto a Cloud infrastructure at the same time, brings a range of advantages and particularly for businesses looking to reduce their on-premise footprint and reduce costs.

Built using Oracle VM and Oracle Linux, and configured to meet Oracle’s standards for Hard Partitioning, the Claremont Cloud avoids the licensing and support pitfalls you may be exposed to when with other cloud offerings.

Claremont technical teams have been working remotely for many years and have well-established processes and procedures, robust infrastructure and collaboration tools.

With multiple Oracle products becoming de-supported, now is a good time to plan a strategic approach to updating Oracle EBS as well as the OS, database and possibly, hosting. This will deliver long-term support, stability and a functionally rich business environment. However, a lack of planning will mean organisations risk piecemeal upgrades that result in higher costs, more disruption and potentially running on de-supported software.

Choosing the right Managed Services Provider

If you are looking for an Oracle partner who can help you with your Oracle Managed Services and goes about it the right way and can back up the talk, then contact us. If you would like to find out more about an Oracle Linux upgrade you can email us at info@claremont.co.uk or phone us on +44 (0) 1483 549004.

Useful resources:

Time Is Running Out For Your Last EBS Upgrade
Oracle Database 19c (19.3) Now Certified With eBusiness Suite 12.2
Technical considerations for EBS 12.2.9 and Oracle DB 19c Upgrades
How to upgrade Oracle Linux 6 to 7
Oracle E-Business: Time To Make A Decision On Your Future
Hosting Oracle In A Cloud? Avoid the Licensing & Support Pitfalls

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