The unique problem · The Renewal Trap
And neither number answers the real question: what is actually best for your infrastructure, and where is the maximum return on that investment? Sometimes the answer is PostgreSQL or SQL Server. Sometimes it’s a managed cloud flavour. And sometimes the best-ROI answer is staying exactly where you are — on Oracle, renegotiated and right-sized.
The failure mode is always the same: the platform gets chosen from a slide, the migration vendor calls it routine, and the truth arrives after cutover — the rewrite was three times bigger, the batch runs slower, the feature you depended on has no equivalent. By then the migration vendor is gone. They were paid for the move, not the outcome.
Leaving for the wrong target destroys ROI as surely as overpaying to stay. The only way to know which side of that line your estate is on: count the objects, run the workload on the real candidates, and put the numbers side by side — staying included.
What the business case sees
— not in the spreadsheet —
Why teams skip the feasibility check
Three things teams tell themselves before leaving Oracle — and why each one is the trap, not the shortcut.
Licence math
The licence line is the only cost that disappears. The rewrite, the retraining, the new tooling, the slower batch — none of them are on the slide, and all of them are real. And the same math trap applies whatever the target — PostgreSQL, SQL Server, or a managed cloud flavour: the licence line is the only number that changed. The business case isn’t written until every line is measured on your estate, not on industry averages.
The vendor’s word
The vendor selling the move is paid for the move — not for what happens after cutover. "Routine" is their pitch, not your measurement. Ask what happens if throughput drops or the rewrite triples: routine engagements don’t come with that answer. Evidence does.
Decide first
Analysis after the decision isn’t analysis — it’s justification. Every finding gets bent toward the choice already made, because nobody budgets for turning back. The board can tell the difference. So can your estate.
What we do instead
We count your PL/SQL surface object by object, run your workload on the real candidate platforms, and put the numbers side by side — including the renegotiated cost of staying on Oracle. Every figure measured on your estate, with the limits of each test stated. Always verified. Never assumed.
The stakes
The board approved five-year savings, built on three numbers nobody has measured: the size of the rewrite, the speed of the target, and the cost of being wrong. The savings are the only line anyone checked — because it came from the invoice.
"About 20% of the PL/SQL will need rework" is a sentence with no evidence behind it. Nobody knows the rewrite surface until every object is counted and classified — translates cleanly, needs rework, or has no equivalent on the target. Until then, the biggest cost line in the business case is a guess wearing a suit.
The licence savings are real. So is the risk that eats them: a batch that runs 40% slower, a rewrite that triples, a feature replaced by six months of custom code. Any one of those turns the business case negative — and none of them shows up until someone runs your workload on the actual target.
If the target disappoints after cutover, the migration vendor is gone — paid for the move, not the outcome. Migrating back costs more than migrating out, and explaining it to the board costs more than both. Nobody plans the return trip, which is exactly why it’s the most expensive journey in enterprise IT.
What we do instead
That’s the whole job: every number in the case measured on your estate — the rewrite counted object by object, the workload timed on the real candidates, the cost of staying priced in. Before you commit, not after. Not because leaving is wrong — but because signing a case you haven’t measured is.
Product · 02
A clear, evidence-based verdict on whether to leave Oracle and what it would really cost — including ‘stay on Oracle,’ when that’s what the evidence says.
Targets: PostgreSQL · SQL Server · cloud-managed
Every assessment is led and signed off by a senior Oracle DBA — 10+ years in production. The verdict is never delegated.
What you'll get — five deliverables
Select a deliverable to exploreTap a deliverable to explore
What we do
We count your PL/SQL surface object by object and classify it per candidate — translates cleanly, needs rework, no equivalent. Then we run your actual workload on the shortlisted targets and time it, and we price the renegotiated cost of staying on Oracle alongside. Read-only on your estate; nothing is touched in production. You receive numbers measured on your systems — not industry averages.
What this will feel like
Somewhere in week two, a number will disagree with the business case — a rewrite bigger than the slide said, or a batch slower than the vendor promised. That moment is uncomfortable. It is also the entire reason you hired us: better in a report before you sign than in production after cutover. And one rule holds for the entire engagement: you can stop it at any point, for any reason. Everything verified up to that moment is documented — and it’s yours.
You can stop here. Fixed scope and fixed price, in writing, before this starts. Nothing runs until you approve it.
What we do
Every PL/SQL object gets counted and classified per candidate platform: translates cleanly, needs rework, or has no equivalent. Critical findings are reproduced on a replica — your workload, run and timed on the shortlisted targets — with the limits of each test stated in writing.
What this will feel like
Somewhere in this phase, a number will disagree with the business case — a rewrite bigger than the slide said, or a batch slower than the vendor promised. That moment is uncomfortable. It’s also the entire reason you hired us: better in a report before you sign than in production after cutover. And one rule holds for the entire engagement: you can stop it at any point, for any reason. Everything verified up to that moment is documented — and it’s yours.
You can stop here. Fixed scope and fixed price, in writing, before this starts. Nothing runs until you approve it.
What we do
The measured findings become numbers leadership can weigh: effort and risk per candidate, side by side — PostgreSQL, SQL Server, managed cloud flavours, and the renegotiated cost of staying on Oracle. Not industry averages. Your objects, your workload, your five-year math.
What this will feel like
This is where "Postgres is free" meets your estate’s reality — in both directions. Sometimes the savings survive the measurement and the case gets stronger. Sometimes one number flips the whole spreadsheet. Either way, you’ll know before you commit, not after. And one rule holds for the entire engagement: you can stop it at any point, for any reason. Everything verified up to that moment is documented — and it’s yours.
You can stop here. Fixed scope and fixed price, in writing, before this starts. Nothing runs until you approve it.
What we do
The verdict in business terms: migrate or stay, to which target, what it costs, what it risks, and what the evidence behind each number is. Built for the room where the decision actually gets made — board, CFO, audit — by people who won’t read a technical annex.
What this will feel like
You present it, or we present it with you — your call. Every number in the deck traces back to a measured finding in the report, so when someone asks "how do you know?", the answer is on the next slide. That’s what signing with confidence feels like. And one rule holds for the entire engagement: you can stop it at any point, for any reason. Everything verified up to that moment is documented — and it’s yours.
You can stop here. Fixed scope and fixed price, in writing, before this starts. Nothing runs until you approve it.
What we do
A scope session before anything runs: we agree what "feasible" means for your workload, which candidate platforms are on the list and why, what gets reproduced versus statically checked, and what the fixed price covers. In writing, before you approve anything.
What this will feel like
One rule holds from this moment through the entire engagement: you can stop it at any point, for any reason. Everything verified up to that moment is documented — and it’s yours. You are never more committed than the evidence justifies. And one rule holds for the entire engagement: you can stop it at any point, for any reason. Everything verified up to that moment is documented — and it’s yours.
You can stop here. Fixed scope and fixed price, in writing, before this starts. Nothing runs until you approve it.
What we do
We count your PL/SQL surface object by object and classify it per candidate — translates cleanly, needs rework, no equivalent. Then we run your actual workload on the shortlisted targets and time it, and we price the renegotiated cost of staying on Oracle alongside. Read-only on your estate; nothing is touched in production. You receive numbers measured on your systems — not industry averages.
What this will feel like
Somewhere in week two, a number will disagree with the business case — a rewrite bigger than the slide said, or a batch slower than the vendor promised. That moment is uncomfortable. It is also the entire reason you hired us: better in a report before you sign than in production after cutover. And one rule holds for the entire engagement: you can stop it at any point, for any reason. Everything verified up to that moment is documented — and it’s yours.
You can stop here. Fixed scope and fixed price, in writing, before this starts. Nothing runs until you approve it.
What we do
We count your PL/SQL surface object by object and classify it per candidate — translates cleanly, needs rework, no equivalent. Then we run your actual workload on the shortlisted targets and time it, and we price the renegotiated cost of staying on Oracle alongside. Read-only on your estate; nothing is touched in production. You receive numbers measured on your systems — not industry averages.
What this will feel like
Somewhere in week two, a number will disagree with the business case — a rewrite bigger than the slide said, or a batch slower than the vendor promised. That moment is uncomfortable. It is also the entire reason you hired us: better in a report before you sign than in production after cutover. And one rule holds for the entire engagement: you can stop it at any point, for any reason. Everything verified up to that moment is documented — and it’s yours.
You can stop here. Fixed scope and fixed price, in writing, before this starts. Nothing runs until you approve it.
What we do
Every PL/SQL object gets counted and classified per candidate platform: translates cleanly, needs rework, or has no equivalent. Critical findings are reproduced on a replica — your workload, run and timed on the shortlisted targets — with the limits of each test stated in writing.
What this will feel like
Somewhere in this phase, a number will disagree with the business case — a rewrite bigger than the slide said, or a batch slower than the vendor promised. That moment is uncomfortable. It’s also the entire reason you hired us: better in a report before you sign than in production after cutover. And one rule holds for the entire engagement: you can stop it at any point, for any reason. Everything verified up to that moment is documented — and it’s yours.
You can stop here. Fixed scope and fixed price, in writing, before this starts. Nothing runs until you approve it.
What we do
The measured findings become numbers leadership can weigh: effort and risk per candidate, side by side — PostgreSQL, SQL Server, managed cloud flavours, and the renegotiated cost of staying on Oracle. Not industry averages. Your objects, your workload, your five-year math.
What this will feel like
This is where "Postgres is free" meets your estate’s reality — in both directions. Sometimes the savings survive the measurement and the case gets stronger. Sometimes one number flips the whole spreadsheet. Either way, you’ll know before you commit, not after. And one rule holds for the entire engagement: you can stop it at any point, for any reason. Everything verified up to that moment is documented — and it’s yours.
You can stop here. Fixed scope and fixed price, in writing, before this starts. Nothing runs until you approve it.
What we do
The verdict in business terms: migrate or stay, to which target, what it costs, what it risks, and what the evidence behind each number is. Built for the room where the decision actually gets made — board, CFO, audit — by people who won’t read a technical annex.
What this will feel like
You present it, or we present it with you — your call. Every number in the deck traces back to a measured finding in the report, so when someone asks "how do you know?", the answer is on the next slide. That’s what signing with confidence feels like. And one rule holds for the entire engagement: you can stop it at any point, for any reason. Everything verified up to that moment is documented — and it’s yours.
You can stop here. Fixed scope and fixed price, in writing, before this starts. Nothing runs until you approve it.
What we do
A scope session before anything runs: we agree what "feasible" means for your workload, which candidate platforms are on the list and why, what gets reproduced versus statically checked, and what the fixed price covers. In writing, before you approve anything.
What this will feel like
One rule holds from this moment through the entire engagement: you can stop it at any point, for any reason. Everything verified up to that moment is documented — and it’s yours. You are never more committed than the evidence justifies. And one rule holds for the entire engagement: you can stop it at any point, for any reason. Everything verified up to that moment is documented — and it’s yours.
You can stop here. Fixed scope and fixed price, in writing, before this starts. Nothing runs until you approve it.
How the engagement runs
Read-only discovery.
Your DBA sees every query we run. Production is never touched.
Reproduction on a replica.
Findings become evidence instead of opinions — with a short note after each session.
The verdict session.
Go/no-go, the evidence behind it, and the roadmap — walked through live, with your team in the room.
Timeline is set at scoping, in writing, with the quote — it scales with your estate, not with our calendar.
Get started
60 minutes. Free. No pitch. You talk to the senior DBA who would run your assessment — not a salesperson.
What to bring
Your Oracle version(s), rough estate size, and your deadline. That’s enough.
What happens on the call
We ask about your migration window, your known risks, and what ‘verified’ needs to mean in your environment. You ask anything — including how we’d handle your specific setup.
What you leave with
A straight answer on whether this assessment fits your situation — including ‘it doesn’t.’ If it doesn’t, we say so on the call and you’ve lost an hour, not a budget.
Prefer email? hello@oracraft.com
Request sent
We’ll be in touch shortly to schedule your scoping call. hello@oracraft.com.