This was the kind of scenario I was thinking my be an issue with INITing it every day.

Thinking aloud...

We tape backup the server shortly after the 20:00hrs full...

Thanks for the reply Phillip. I had already based the plan around these factors and hence the daily, 4 hourly, 30 minute schedule. This is just one element...

You can have as many databases per instance as you like. Licensing is either priced per CPU (approx $6000 per CPU for Standard, $25,000 for Enterprise on SQL 2005)...