Understanding different Oracle development license strategies

We get this question often. In the development environment, Oracle's licensing is pretty clear – one person, one server and for development only. Oracle's Technology Network (OTN) offers a developer license for single users. It's extremely restrictive. You cannot use the Oracle products for internal data processing or for any other commercial or production activities.

In most cases, companies may use Oracle full use licenses in a development environment by downloading Oracle products from the Oracle Technology Network (OTN). Users must agree to the Oracle Technology Network Developer License Terms, which gives licensing rights to the single user to use the application(s) in a development environment only. In addition, the Oracle products cannot be used for any internal data processing operations or for any commercial or production functions. So, Oracle licensing is pretty clear in a development environment --- one person, one server and for the development environment only. If you have a multiple user development environment (and most organizations do), then appropriate licensing of all programs is required. There are many different strategies for licensing your development environment, but you have to be able to select the one that gives you best value and maximizes your assets.