In looking at what might be changing with SQL Server 2008, I ran into this interesting comparison between the Enterprise and Standard editions. It doesn't look to bad, but if you check out the complete comparison, there are a few things that really disturbed me.
For example, the PDF seems to show that Reporting Services and Analysis Services are only available with the Enterprise edition. I've heard that this is not the case, but from this document, which is posted in the SQL Server 2008 section, that's what I'd infer.
With Reporting Services being an extremely popular add-in, and heavily used by many companies, I'd be stunned if it wasn't included with Standard Edition. My guess is many companies would just as soon go back to Crystal Reports or some other technology than be forced to use Enterprise Edition.
I completely understand that Microsoft would prefer to get people using the Enterprise Edition, after all, they've spent the money to build it and it costs more, so they want the investment in those cool features like hot-add, the resource governor, compression, etc. to get some payback. So it makes sense that the marketing and sales folks would try to steer people towards the more expensive version.
However I think this marketing effort is very poorly done and somewhat deceives people. If you presented this to an executive, and they knew that reporting services was required for their application, I think they're revising their budgetary numbers in favor of the Enterprise version.
Or perhaps delaying an upgrade.
Convincing people that a new version is worth the investment can be a tough proposition, and I know that it's something a company needs to do. And if you make a good argument, then I'm sure some people will choose to buy the product. Just do it in a fair manner that discloses and doesn't deceive.
Steve Jones
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