July 8, 2014 at 3:57 am
Hi,
I am looking for some independent advice on SQL 2012 licensing. If anyone has example pricing and/or actual pricing for SQL 2012 enterprise edition that would help me gauge what I can expect. The prices quoted by MS on the web work out to about £4020 per core. Is this a one off cost? What would software assurance cost to go along with this? Are there better deals to be had than this?
As an example I have a 16 core server that I’d like to get SQL 2012 enterprise on.
(Background: We’re currently on 2008R2 ent edition which is covered by our hosting providers SPLA agreement but this will not cover SQL 2012, and their quotes for upgrading are astronomical)
Regards
Chris
July 11, 2014 at 3:29 pm
Our volume price is for SQL 2014 (down-gradablke to SQL 2012) with SA.
CPU cores are licensed in 2 packs.
You have 16 cores so you need 8 - 2 packs.
So your ball-park costs for 8 2-packs at $2,421 per 2 pack is - $19,368.
RegardsRudy KomacsarSenior Database Administrator"Ave Caesar! - Morituri te salutamus."
July 14, 2014 at 4:12 am
Every companies prices will be different to some extent due to the reseller they user and the margins they add to the quote.
For my open value program a 2 core Enterprise 2014 pack costs £20,325 and a 2 core Standard 2014 pack costs £5,301. Both of these are up front costs with 3 years software assurance.
I could also spread the cost over the 3 years to not have to pay so much up front, but the overall price remains the same.
You have to warrant the fact that if your not using any Enterprise features and can live with the limits of Standard, do you convert to Standard and save a boat load of cash.
So for your 16 cores at my purchase pricing your looking at a cost of £162,600 for Enterprise or £42,408 for Standard for 8x2Core licenses with 3 years SA.
July 15, 2014 at 6:28 am
Be careful that the prices really are "per core"; as Rudy has said, licences are sold in packs of 2; furthermore, the minimum licence is 4 cores so you may see a price for 1 core, 2 cores or 4 cores!
You main consideration is whether SA makes sense for you. Broadly speaking, if you think you'll upgrade in the next 3-4 years then SA makes economic sense. If you'll stick with MSSQL 2012 Enterprise for more than 4 years then SA is not good value. [Please correct me if anyone disagrees or knows better :)]
If you are thinking of purchasing outright, you might want to consider the 2014 edition. With SA, the upgrade is included.
There are also significant variations between Dollar & Sterling prices (completely unjustified, but they persist). If you take the 2 examples given, Rudy pays $2421 and Anthony pays $9100. I don't know whether the SA deals are the same; I suspect Rudy's is an annual fee.
Enterprise Edition costs approximately 4 times Standard Edition.
July 15, 2014 at 7:58 am
Thank you for the responses guys.
So I have established I am being quoted an annual subscription license for SQL 2012 which does include SA at £4800 for a 2 core pack. So for my 16 core server I'm looking at £38400 per year or £115200 over 3 years which isn't too bad when compared to the up front purchase costing £162600. I am interested to know what the ongoing SA cost would be after the 3 years as I assume there would be a point where you would start saving money buy purchasing up front.
Still, Rudy's price is significantly better than what I can get quoted in GBP! $2412 (£1405 at today's rates) vs £4800... How can there be such a huge disparity? (obviously mine includes VAT whereas a US price probably doesn't include tax, but still...)
July 15, 2014 at 9:28 am
You need to talk to your license reseller.
You will then get the price that actually applies to your organisation. If you have an EAP it can be expensive to add additional capacity, and also the EAP licence typically requires you to have all Microsoft software purchased under the EAP.
Microsoft licensing is changing, and many of the deals currently in place will be moved to a new license setup when they expire. Your license reseller will be able to tell you how you will be affected (please do not ask me, I am not your license reseller).
It is also worth looking at other alternatives to SQL Enterprise. My employer has chosen Redshift for future BI work, mainly because this gives much the same in-memory and column-store capabilities of SQL2014 Enterprise at lower than Standard Edition pricing.
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