Oracle Forms in the Oracle Cloud – What’s New

For Oracle Forms customers looking to transition to the cloud, we are happy to announce the availability of the new Oracle WebLogic Suite for OCI UCM image with Oracle Forms.

While an Oracle Forms image has been available in Oracle Cloud Marketplace for several years as a Bring Your Own License (BYOL) image, with this new offering, customers will be able to pay per OCPU/hour for the entitlement and support to run Oracle Forms Services (runtime) on OCI.  This Universal Credit Model (UCM) option will provide greater flexibility for using Forms in Oracle Cloud.

How is it billed?

The Oracle WebLogic Suite for OCI UCM image with Oracle Forms is billed per OCPU/per hour, and is only billed when the Compute instance is running. The cost of the image does not include other services, such as Compute and Block Storage.

Why should I run Oracle Forms in Oracle Cloud?

The benefits to using Cloud to host your systems and applications over on-premises  include:

• High performance hardware, networking, and storage
• Superior system reliability and uptime
• No need to maintain high-cost hardware and its infrastructure
• Add resources and scale as needed with little or no cost
• Easy accessibility from anywhere in the world

For Oracle Forms specifically, running in Cloud means you benefit from all the things mentioned and some additional key benefits that include:

Easier setup

If you further take advantage of the Marketplace images available, a basic environment will be setup for you in just a few minutes.  No need to figure out what software packages are needed, how to install them, and how to configure them.  All Forms related components will be configured and up and running when provision has completed.  This environment can be easily extended to add other technologies like Oracle Reports and others.  It can also be integrated with other services like DBCS, ADB, Analytics Publisher, Load Balancer, and numerous others; with more being added all the time.

Cheaper dev/test environment

Consider a scenario where you need a test environment for just a week or so.  With just a few mouse clicks you can have a Forms environment up and running in just minutes (using Oracle Cloud Marketplace).  When you’re done with that environment simply shut it down and/or “terminate” it.  If you’re using UCM, you only pay for the time while the machine is running.  

Connectivity to Other Services

If you are taking advantage of running Database Cloud Service or Autonomous Database with your Forms applications, because the network performance between your Forms instance and the database likely will far exceed what you are accustomed to on-prem, the result is your users will be saving time and getting work done faster.  

Which is right for me?  UCM or BYOL?

Universal Credit Model (UCM) provides a variety of options for how you are billed for your Cloud usage.  Whether you choose an annual, monthly, or pay-as-you-go option, UCM offers financial flexibility in how you use Cloud.  Because access to Oracle Support is also included in the UCM option(s), having to maintain a separate Support agreement and its cost are eliminated.  Although the UCM options can be a great cost savings approach for many Oracle Forms customers, it can be especially beneficial to organizations who do not have a need to operate their systems 24/7/365. Whether it is a production or testing environment, at the end of the workday, simply shut down the system and billing for that Compute instance stops until you decide to restart it again.

Bring Your Own License (BYOL), is an excellent choice for customers who already own licensing and simply want to transition from their own data center to Oracle Cloud without interfering with their current bill approach.  This option may be more cost effective if the business expects to have the system available 24/7/365.  Although BYOL does not include Support, using your own license in Oracle Cloud may entitle you to discounts in your Support costs.  Contact Oracle Sales and/or the following web page for details and to determine if you are eligible.
https://www.oracle.com/cloud/rewards

Information about all available billing options can be found here:
https://docs.oracle.com/en/cloud/get-started/subscriptions-cloud/ocpib/billing-models-offered.html

Next steps

To learn more about the technical aspects and setup of the new offering head over to this entry in the WebLogic blog.

And for even deeper knowledge check out the following links:

Oracle Forms for OCI documentation
Oracle Forms 12.2.1.19 documentation
Oracle Forms in Cloud Marketplace (UCM)
Oracle Forms in Cloud Marketplace (BYOL)