Software maintenance and support is a recurring contract under which a software vendor provides, for a defined period, updates and fixes to licensed software, rights to new versions released during that period, and technical assistance. It may be sold separately from the license, as an annual charge on a perpetual license, or bundled into a subscription or enterprise agreement. Vendors use different names: Oracle’s standard level is Software Update License & Support, Microsoft’s is Software Assurance, and IBM’s is Software Subscription and Support.[1][3][6]
Maintenance is distinct from the license itself. A perpetual license can continue after support ends, but the customer then loses the services and any use rights that depend on active coverage, and some vendors charge to reinstate support after a lapse.
History
Annual maintenance charged as a percentage of the license fee is a long-established model for perpetual enterprise software. The SAP v Diageo judgment, for example, describes a 2004 agreement under which the maintenance fee was payable annually and calculated as a percentage of the license fee.[10] The spread of subscriptions, in which the right to use and the right to updates are bought together for a term, has blurred the line: Microsoft’s Customer Agreement distinguishes software licensed on a subscription basis, which expires unless renewed, from perpetual licenses.[11]
Scope and definitions
What maintenance typically includes
| Component | Oracle Software Update License & Support[1] | Microsoft Software Assurance[3][4] | IBM Subscription and Support[6] |
|---|---|---|---|
| Updates and fixes | Program updates, fixes, security alerts and critical patch updates | Not listed separately on the pages cited | Fixes through Fix Central |
| New versions | Major releases if and when made available at Oracle’s discretion | New Version Rights | Download of latest versions and releases of entitled software |
| Technical assistance | Service requests 24 hours a day, 7 days a week | Support listed among benefits | Technical support for distributed software |
| Additional use rights | Not covered in the policy sections cited | Some, such as License Mobility and disaster-recovery rights for servers | Not described on the overview page |
Coverage rules
Vendors limit how selectively support can be bought. Oracle’s policies define a license set, which includes all licenses of a program and its options, and all licenses of programs that share the same source code, such as the Oracle Database editions. All licenses in a license set must be supported at the same level; a customer cannot support only a subset but must terminate the unsupported licenses.[1] When licenses on an order are terminated or support is reduced, support for the remaining licenses is repriced at list price less the standard discount, within stated limits.[1] The Oracle Master Agreement repeats the matching-level rule and states that a customer who does not buy technical support may not update unsupported licenses with new versions.[2]
Microsoft states that Software Assurance is only available through Volume Licensing and is purchased when a Volume Licensing agreement is bought or renewed. It is included in some agreements, such as the Enterprise Agreement and Open Value, and optional in others, such as the Microsoft Products and Services Agreement.[3]
How it works
Term, renewal and pricing
Support is normally sold for 12 months and renewed. Oracle’s policies price technical support on a 12-month support period, payable annually in advance and non-cancellable once ordered, and state that Oracle has no obligation to provide support beyond the end of the period.[1] The Oracle Master Agreement version cited here limits renewal increases for Software Update License & Support to 8% over the prior year’s fee for the first and second renewal years, when renewed for the same number of licenses of the same programs.[2] IBM asks customers to renew Subscription and Support at the end of each coverage term to keep upgrade and support benefits in effect.[6]
In Microsoft’s Enterprise Agreement, Software Assurance is included. After the final payments for licenses and Software Assurance the customer owns perpetual licenses to the then-latest version, and renewal pricing for on-premises software is based on Software Assurance only.[5]
Lifecycle phases
Some vendors tie the level of support to the age of a release. Oracle’s Lifetime Support policy provides Premier Support for five years from general availability of a release, followed in some cases by Extended Support for up to three more years at an additional fee, or by Sustaining Support for as long as annual support fees continue to be paid. Sustaining Support excludes new updates, fixes and security patches.[1] IBM distinguishes Base Support from Extended Support, for releases past their Base Support completion date, and Sustained Support, for products whose releases have all reached that date.[6][7]
Lapse and reinstatement
When support lapses, the customer keeps a perpetual license but loses the services. Oracle states that customers with unsupported programs are not entitled to download or receive updates, patches, telephone assistance or other support for them.[1]
Reinstatement terms vary. Oracle publishes a formula:
- If support lapsed, the reinstatement fee is 150% of the last annual support fee paid for the program, prorated from the date support is ordered back to the date it lapsed.
- If support was never bought, the fee is 150% of the net support fee that would have applied, prorated back to the original license order date.
- In either case, the customer also pays the support fee for the new support period.[1]
IBM publishes a reactivation route for lapsed Subscription and Support; the reactivation page cited here does not state a fee formula.[7] Where licenses are found to be over-deployed in a verification, IBM’s Client Relationship Agreement adds subscription and support charges for the excess, for the lesser of its duration or two years.[8]
Relationship to license ownership
Maintenance affects what a customer may do with a license in three ways.
- Version rights. Under Microsoft’s Product Terms, a customer may upgrade to the latest version while Software Assurance is active. If it acquired perpetual licenses through Software Assurance, it may deploy upgrades after coverage expires, but only to versions released while coverage was active.[4]
- Use rights that end with coverage. Microsoft states that rights to use Software Assurance benefits generally expire when coverage expires, unless otherwise noted; the right to run disaster-recovery backup instances, for example, ends when coverage ends.[4] Some licensing options are available only with active coverage: SQL Server licensing by individual virtual OSE is available only for subscription licenses or licenses with active Software Assurance.[12]
- Updates become part of the licensed copy. IBM’s agreement makes an update, fix or patch subject to the terms governing the program, and requires the customer to stop using a program replaced by an update.[8] In UsedSoft v Oracle, the Court of Justice of the European Union held that functionality corrected, altered or added under a maintenance agreement forms an integral part of the downloaded copy and can be used for an unlimited period even if the maintenance agreement is not renewed, so that exhaustion of the distribution right extends to the copy as updated.[9]
For license position work, support status is therefore an attribute of each entitlement: it determines which versions may be deployed and which use rights can be applied in an effective license position.
Standards and frameworks
The ISO/IEC 19770 standards do not regulate support contracts. Support status and term are typically held as attributes of entitlement records; see ISO/IEC 19770 and Software entitlement.
Relationship to other disciplines
Support decisions are a common lever in software asset management optimization, and a risk in license compliance, because dropping support can remove use rights that a deployment relies on. They also interact with true-up orders in agreements where support is bundled, and with cloud BYOL rights that some vendors grant only with active coverage.
Criticism and challenges
Matching-level rules such as Oracle’s license set limit partial reductions of support, and reinstatement fees raise the cost of letting support lapse and later returning.[1] Support policies are usually incorporated by reference and can change; Oracle states that its policies may change at its discretion but that changes will not materially reduce the level of service during a paid support period.[1]
Out of scope
This article does not cover third-party support providers, hardware maintenance, cloud service levels or support pricing beyond the published formulas cited.