Oracle Option for Banner 8 Clients: Lift and Shift to the Cloud

Banner by Ellucian customers know the clock is ticking and time to move to Banner 9 is running out. Some are hoping that Ellucian will announce an extension to Banner 8 support. Some are working feverishly to migrate off Banner prior to the end of 2018; a small percentage report that their Banner 9 upgrade is on track to be complete on time.

Issues range from lack of personnel, lack of financial resources, lack of information, and denial that the upgrade is required.

For Banner customers that need help, there is another option and some flexibility for timing to get all of the forms and reports to Banner 9.

Oracle has a solution. And according to one Oracle client, the solution is three times less expensive than the alternative from Ellucian.

My visual is Oracle Cloud parachutes dropping in over campuses to save the day. Oracle can simplify the migration for Banner customers by lifting and shifting the workload to the cloud.

Institutions can integrate with on-premises applications.

Hardware requirements to run Banner 9 are greater than what is required for Banner 8. Institutions report the server capacity required to run Banner 9 at peak times can be up to ten times greater than what is required for Banner 8. Moving processing of Banner to the cloud allows institutions to build templates for provisioning. During peak utilization, capacity is automatically added on a temporary basis. Cloud also means shorter turnaround for upgrades and go-live events. Institutions benefit from real time disaster recovery and VPN encrypted traffic.

Banner customers can easily move applications to the Oracle Cloud. The cloud provides advanced security, multitenant, partitioning, and real application testing. The solution is compatible with Ellucian Solution Manager.

The best news is that Banner customers can run their Oracle custom reports and forms that are tied to Banner 8 in the Oracle Cloud without migrating all of them prior to December 2018. Moving to the Oracle Cloud as part of a Banner 9 upgrade strategy could give institutions the time they desperately need.