last_verified: 2026-03-14
description: Common customer objections about OCI and evidence-based responses.

objections:
  - id: OBJ-001
    category: market
    objection: "OCI is a niche cloud — AWS/Azure are the leaders"
    response: |
      OCI is the #4 cloud globally and growing fastest in database PaaS.
      For Oracle database workloads specifically, OCI is the leader:
      - Only cloud with Exadata hardware
      - Only cloud with Autonomous Database
      - Best Oracle license portability
      The question isn't "best cloud overall" but "best cloud for this workload."
    evidence: "Gartner, IDC reports on cloud database market"

  - id: OBJ-002
    category: risk
    objection: "What if Oracle EOLs or changes OCI pricing?"
    response: |
      OCI pricing has only decreased since launch. Oracle's cloud investment
      is $50B+ in CapEx. OCI is Oracle's strategic platform — not a side project.
      Contractual pricing protection exists via Annual Flex and Universal Credits.
    mitigation: "Use annual flex contracts with pricing guarantees"

  - id: OBJ-003
    category: skills
    objection: "Our team has no OCI experience"
    response: |
      ADB-S reduces DBA workload by 80% (no patching, tuning, scaling).
      OCI console follows familiar cloud patterns. Terraform provider is mature.
      Oracle provides free training and certification. Typical ramp-up is 2-4 weeks.
    mitigation: "Include training budget in migration plan"

  - id: OBJ-004
    category: features
    objection: "OCI doesn't have as many services as AWS"
    response: |
      True for breadth (AWS has 200+ services). For database and enterprise
      workloads, OCI feature parity is strong. Key services are GA:
      - Compute, networking, storage, Kubernetes, serverless
      - Monitoring, logging, IAM, security
      - Queue, Streaming, API Gateway
      What matters is whether OCI has what *you* need, not a raw count.

  - id: OBJ-005
    category: cost
    objection: "We can get better pricing from AWS/Azure"
    response: |
      OCI list prices are already 30-50% below AWS for equivalent configs.
      For Oracle specifically:
      - No Oracle license surcharge on OCI
      - BYOL discount is deeper on OCI
      - Data egress is 10x cheaper
      Request a detailed cost comparison with matched configurations.

  - id: OBJ-006
    category: migration
    objection: "Migration is too risky and expensive"
    response: |
      Oracle provides free migration tools (ZDM, DMS) and migration credits.
      Phased migration reduces risk. ADB-S migrations from on-prem Exadata
      are well-documented with reference architectures. Typical timeline is
      8-16 weeks for database migration.
    mitigation: "Phased migration with rollback plan at each phase"

  - id: OBJ-007
    category: vendor_lock
    objection: "We don't want vendor lock-in with Oracle"
    response: |
      You're already locked into Oracle Database (the software). OCI doesn't
      add lock-in — it reduces cost and operational burden of running Oracle.
      OCI also supports open source: PostgreSQL, MySQL, Kubernetes, Terraform.
      If you want to reduce Oracle dependency, that's a separate conversation
      about database modernization, not cloud choice.

  - id: OBJ-008
    category: availability
    objection: "OCI has fewer regions than AWS"
    response: |
      OCI has 50+ public cloud regions globally, covering all major markets.
      If a specific region is required, check current availability.
      For Oracle Database@Azure, OCI services run inside Azure regions.
