A new global survey reveals that Oracle Database customers are actively reshaping their database strategies due to rising costs, inconsistent support quality, and the growing demand for advanced AI and machine learning capabilities. The 2025 Database Strategies and Support Survey – The Diversification and Decentralization Revolution, conducted by Unisphere Research and commissioned by Rimini Street, gathered insights from over 200 Oracle Database managers and practitioners worldwide. The findings show that 63% of respondents find Oracle’s support costs too high, while 87% report that slow issue resolution is a significant or serious problem. Only 16% rate their initial Oracle support engineer as very skilled, with many stating they must escalate to more experienced personnel to get meaningful assistance. These challenges are driving organizations to seek alternative support models. In response, 25% of surveyed customers are already using third-party support providers, and 30% are actively considering it. The most sought-after services include cloud database management (37%), data migration (36%), performance tuning (34%), and backup and recovery (32%). Rimini Street, the leading third-party support provider for Oracle, SAP, and VMware, highlights that its support model offers a guaranteed 10-minute response time for critical issues, backed by a team with an average of 20+ years of experience. The company emphasizes that third-party support can reduce total support costs by up to 90%, freeing up resources for strategic initiatives like AI and LLM development. Clients such as Hyundai have reported faster issue resolution, improved system performance, and the ability to redirect internal teams toward innovation. The survey also shows a clear shift away from exclusive reliance on Oracle. 77% of respondents have deployed new applications or datasets on non-Oracle databases in the past 36 months. Common alternatives include SQL Server (59%), MySQL (45%), PostgreSQL (40%), and Amazon RDS (28%). The primary drivers for this diversification are high costs (58%) and perceived innovation and support gaps in Oracle’s platform. Despite Oracle’s recent integration of native large language model (LLM) support in versions 19c and 23ai, 47% of survey participants said they would like to see such capabilities, indicating a gap in awareness. Rimini Street’s Robert Freeman notes that organizations can leverage existing Oracle systems for AI innovation without the need for costly upgrades or additional database providers. Rimini Street’s tailored solutions for Oracle, open-source, and other databases are designed to help clients maximize their software investments, improve agility, and accelerate AI adoption. The full report is available for download. The company also cautions that forward-looking statements in the report are subject to various risks, including market conditions, competition, regulatory changes, cybersecurity threats, and the success of new product initiatives. These statements are based on current expectations and may change as new information becomes available.