Fintech Achieves Major Savings Before Java Renewal

The Challenge

This organization had built up years of technical debt in the form of Oracle Java instances deployed across various regions, infrastructure types, and business units. Without centralized ownership or clear usage justification, it was unclear what was truly needed, and concerns that inventory was incomplete and inaccurate.

With its Oracle Java contract coming to an end, the company was facing a seven-figure renewal, an investment that was hard to justify without a clear strategy around its Oracle Java deployments.

Furthermore, changes to Oracle Java licensing in 2023—where a single instance of the software deployed anywhere across the organization could require the company to purchase a license covering all of its employees—heightened the risks associated with non-compliance.

With multiple versions of Oracle Java deployed across the company—including many older versions—there were also concerns around software vulnerabilities, which could increase its exposure to harmful cyberattacks.

As a risk-averse organization with a highly-mature approach to IT Asset Management (ITAM), it recognized that the only way to achieve the desired business agility was to remove all licensable server Oracle Java instances. This would require specialist expertise to identify and remove all deployments and establish guardrails to prevent the subsequent use of this software. With several business-critical applications relying on Oracle Java, the company also needed a clear roadmap to migrate to alternative platforms to ensure uninterrupted day-to-day operations.

The Solution

Anglepoint’s team of experts was already helping this organization manage its Oracle estate. Its understanding of the company’s IT estate and zero-risk approach to ITAM—together with its deep knowledge of Oracle licensing—meant it was the ideal candidate to spearhead the elimination of licensable Oracle Java from the client’s infrastructure.

Working in close collaboration with the organization’s in-house ITAM team, Anglepoint took a pragmatic and structured approach to this program, which included:

• Discovery via ServiceNow: Anglepoint’s specialists leveraged the client’s Software Asset Management (SAM) tool of choice—ServiceNow—to extract a comprehensive list of all known Oracle Java instances. Recognizing that discovery tools alone cannot provide a 360-degree view of all deployments, this data was scrutinized, cross-checked and augmented by the Anglepoint team, which worked closely with stakeholders and application owners to validate the deployments and ensure accuracy of the data.
• Stakeholder Alignment and Application Migration: From the outset of this initiative, Anglepoint partnered with key stakeholders from across the business, spanning ITAM, operations, IT security, procurement, senior management, and more. This not only assisted to validate the data discovered using ServiceNow, it helped build consensus on next steps. In addition, Anglepoint worked closely with the client to finalize the migration of all business-critical applications to OpenJDK and other alternatives, while all other instances were retired or removed following robust security and change management processes. Progress was tracked during weekly coordination calls and on detailed monthly reports, which documented the decline and eventual elimination of Oracle Java usage.
• Governance Model Enhancement: Oracle’s licensing regime—which requires organizations to purchase licenses covering all employees, regardless of the number of instances—meant that, once all licensable Oracle Java was removed from the servers, long-term controls would be required to block future downloads and to steer users onto alternative platforms. To facilitate this, Anglepoint helped the client develop and communicate clear directives prohibiting Oracle Java use unless there’s an explicit need for it and requires to go through a rigorous approval process, while continuous monitoring and regular reporting provide an early-warning system to identify and remediate any unauthorized deployments.

Results

Complete Elimination of Licensable Oracle Java: Zero remaining licensable server installations across production, test, and development environments

Seven-Figure License Purchase Avoided: With the software fully removed, no licenses or support are needed, allowing the company to avoid entering into a new seven-figure contract

Removal of Audit Risk: With no installations, the organization is no longer at risk of audit, where just one software instance could trigger company-wide licensing obligations

Security and Risk Posture Strengthened: Legacy components which were often unmanaged or unpatched are now fully eradicated from the environment

Robust Governance Model: With clear ownership and processes, the organization has greater control over its estate, ensuring stakeholders and users leverage authorized and more cost-effective software alternatives