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Changes in SQL Server 2012 Licensing

The coming launch of SQL Server 2012 is bringing many new features and improvements to the product, but along with those improvements comes some interesting changes to the way SQL Server is licensed.

The most notable change is a move away from the traditional per socket licensing to a per core license model. For example: Standard Edition has moved from supporting a maximum of 4 CPUs to a maximum of 16 cores. With newer server processors available with 10+ cores, this move could seriously impact your licensing costs as you scale upward.

Next up is the introduction of the Business Intelligence Edition. This edition will feature many of the newer BI solutions Microsoft has been working on including PowerView, PowerPivot, Master Data Services, and the Semantic Model. While the traditional Integration Services and Reporting Services are still included in the Standard Edition, all of the newer "Self Service" BI tools will require an upsell to the BI Edition.

Lastly, Data Center Edition has be discontinued, and all of its features will be rolled into the Enterprise Edition. Along with this change, Microsoft has discontinued the Server+CAL licensing for Enterprise edition and licensing by cores will now be the only option.

For more details on the matrix of the new Edition's features, check out Microsoft's Edition page.