softchoice sql 2012 licensing field...

Softchoice SQL 2012 Licensing field guideKey updates to the SQL licensing model and options

Introduction

With the launch and release of SQL 2012, major changes are afoot. In order to take advantage of opportunities to lock in pricing and maximize the licenses you’ve already paid for, its critical to get ahead of the new licensing rules now. Our Softchoice SQL 2012 Licensing Field Guide provides a quick and easy to digest view on SQL updates.

Included in this Field Guide You’ll Find…

Part one: Industry trends - What’s affecting our IT environments?We review how industry trends are changing the landscape of the IT ecosystem. Key aspects include: the advent of the unstructured data explosion, the consumerization of IT and the move to both private and public cloud platforms.

Part two: Why migrate? Our review of the most compelling reasons to take on the daunting task of migration. We tackle the top 7 reasons to make the move to SQL 2012 including a review of AlwaysOn, column store improvements, DQS, beefed up BI capabilities, new developer tools, Windows Server Core 2008 and cloud capabilities.

Part three: What’s new? SQL Server 2012 key licensing & pricing changesAccess our At a Glance review of all three SQL editions, what’s retired and what’s new, and how better alignment is offered in 2012.

Part four: How the Softchoice SQL TechCheck helps you navigate the transition Get ahead of new licensing rules now, lock in pricing, and maximize the licenses you’ve already paid for with Softhoice’s TechCheck process.

Softchoice SQL 2012 licensing field guide1

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Part One: Industry trends - What’s affecting our IT environments?As we look at the IT industry today, a number of important trends are changing the way software is being purchased, deployed and used in the organization.

Data explosionThe volume of data in the workplace is exploding. According to IDC, digital data will grow more than 40x over the next decade. As more and more data is created digitally, we expect to see ever greater demands being placed on our data platforms to store, secure, process and manage these large and highly unstructured volumes of data.

Consumerization of ITToday we see an increasing trend toward the “consumerization” of IT—creating the demand for Web 2.0 experiences in the business environment. As consumers, we are accustomed to powerful user-friendly experiences, whether searching the Internet on a mobile device to find information instantly, or quickly accessing our personal financial data. In the workplace, however, we are often unable to answer even the most basic questions about our business. Increasingly, users demand business experiences that more closely mirror the convenience and ease of use in consumer life.

Private and public cloudCloud computing is changing the way data is accessed and processed, and it is creating whole new models for the way applications are delivered. According to IDC, Cloud services will account for 46% of net-new growth in overall IT spending. With private and public cloud infrastructure, organizations have an opportunity to reduce TCO dramatically as data volume increases. As we see an evolution toward greater use of private and public clouds, we see an increasing need for solutions that support hybrid cloud scenarios.


• Digital data will grow 44x over the next decade (2009-2020)

• Public cloud services will account for 46% of net-new growth in IT spending in 2015

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Part two: Why Migrate?

We understand that making a move to a new version of a relational database management system is no small task. The migration effort can be downright daunting in its complexity. As with the installation of a new OS, organizations face a tremendous implementation, testing and validation effort. In many cases, custom code and stored procedures may have to be re-written, or applications updated, or other processes need to be modified in order to take full advantage of the new database platform.

In the face of all of that effort and investment, why migrate to SQL Server 2012? We’ve compiled what we view as the seven wonders of SQL 2012 that make the move worthwhile for any organization.

1. AlwaysOn – High Availability and Disaster RecoveryIn SQL 2012, Microsoft introduces AlwaysOn to address the need for a highly available SQL Server infrastructure. AlwaysOn is a high-availability (HA) and disaster-recovery (DR) ready-for-the-enterprise solution that provides a new option for DBAs who previously might have leveraged other options, such as clustering, mirroring or log shipping in their SQL environments.

There’s still a great deal for Developers, DBAs, and Systems Engineers to uncover about the AlwaysOn solution and how it will enable seamless failover but the buzz about this feature is considerable. If there’s a key benefit in SQL 2012 that is generating excitement, this is it.

2. Give Me SpeedSQL Server 2012 is going to be fast. New technologies like Column store index are showing dramatic improvements in the ability to return a dataset from a query. Microsoft reports that in some cases, execution of queries has been up to one hundred times faster than in previous versions of SQL Server. Column store index (codenamed “Apollo”) is an underlying technology in PowerPivot, and is now a core technology in the SQL platform.

Existing features are faster too, including Full-Text Search, which has also been improved to provide faster query execution. Changes to the way that Full-Text Search uses memory, block in db operations, and other changes have resulted in dramatic improvements in its performance.


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3. Better Data Quality ServicesData input to a SQL database table isn’t always going to be 100% correct, and sometimes it needs to be cleaned up before accurate reports can be produced. But what if there are millions of rows in a table with dozens of fields? A manual effort could take weeks, and probably introduce even more errors.

Data Quality Services (DQS) in SQL 2012 leverages an internal Knowledge Base about what data in specific fields should look like, and once that KB is populated with information about your data, DQS will be able to ensure high quality data and that your reports will be accurate. What’s best about the DQS feature is that it doesn’t take a highly skilled DBA to configure and use – end users can manage that process themselves.

4. Beefed Up BI CapabilitiesSQL 2012 includes improved Business Intelligence capabilities, powered by Project “Crescent”. Crescent is part of SQL Reporting Services, and allows users to visually represent data, enabling an interactive way to gain real business intelligence from the information at hand.

A further benefit of using AlwaysOn is that mirror servers can be used to create and run reports. Using Crescent, those reports, or ad-hoc queries, can be run against target servers that are part of a Database Availability Group, which allows real-time reporting without affecting production systems.

The Sematic Model within SQL 2012 enables business intelligence solutions to scale to very large organizations and includes one mode of use for all types of end users – users who create simple reports, or who are building customer BI applications.

5. Shiny New Developer ToolsSQL 2012 will include a new set of developer tools that are compatible with Microsoft’s Visual Studio suite, and that are also backward-compatible with previous versions of SQL Server. These tools are intended to make the lives of developers not only easier, but also more productive too.

Juneau is comprised of a set of tools to enable developers to build, test, debug, control revisions, and modify databases and associated applications for various platforms, such as downlevel SQL Server instances, or SQL Azure. Also included are query tools, which may make visits to the SQL Server Management Studio increasingly rare for developers and DBAs.

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6. Server core supportSQL Server 2012 is now supported on Windows Server 2008 Core. No version of the Windows OS is completely free from the need to apply updates (Patch Tuesday) but by installing SQL Server 2012 on Windows Server Core, you’ve significantly reduced the number of OS components that need to be updated. That in turn can reduce the number of updates that require a restart of the OS. And both of those things can, again, translate into improved ability to meet your SLAs.

7. Cloud capabilitiesEven better news, SQL Server 2012 is cloud ready. This means:

• Flexible options for deploying SQL 2012 using the same version of SQL that you would use in a traditional deployment scenario

• Quickly deploying SQL and managing it with the same tools that you would use to manage a traditional implementation

• Integration with platforms such as SQL Azure, which will allow organizations to scale services out rapidly without needing to change platforms.

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Part three: What’s new? SQL Server 2012 Key licensing & pricing changesWhat’s changing? Here’s a quick overview of what you can expect in the 2012 Edition of SQL

AT A GLANCE

Retired and New editions• Retiring Datacenter, Small Business, Workgroup, Web Editions• Introducing Business Intelligence Edition

Better edition alignment

SQL Server 2012 offers better edition alignment, reflecting a significant investment in business intelligence and a single, powerful Tier 1 offering for mission critical needs. Details include:

Enterprise edition: Mission critical OLTP, DW & BI• Datacenter capabilities moved into Enterprise• AlwaysOn high availability• Blazing-fast performance• Inclusive of Business Intelligence edition

Business Intelligence edition: Premium BI• Rapid data discovery with Power View• Managed self-service analytics• Single BI semantic model• Inclusive of Standard edition

Standard edition:• Continues to offer basic DB & BI


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There will be 3 principal editions offered in SQL Server 2012:1. Enterprise Edition is our primary offering. This edition will contain all of the new SQL Server 2012 capabilities, including

high availability and performance updates that make this a mission critical ready database. This edition will contain all of our BI functionality as well. All of the SQL 2008 R2 Datacenter capabilities are now included in Enterprise Edition under SA.

2. With SQL Server 2012, we are introducing a new Business Intelligence Edition. The BI Server Edition offers the full suite of powerful BI capabilities in SQL Server 2012, including PowerPivot and Crescent. One major focus of this edition is empowering end users with BI functionality. This will be ideal for projects that need advanced BI capabilities but don’t require the full OLTP performance and scalability of Enterprise Edition. The new BI Edition is inclusive of standard edition, so will still contain our basic OLTP offerings.

3. Standard Edition remains as it is today, designed for departmental use with limited scale. It has basic database functionality and basic BI functionality.


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Licensing options for SQL Server 2012 editions With SQL Server 2012, Microsoft is evolving its licensing to align with how our customers purchase and use database and business intelligence software.

This table provides an overview of how each SQL Server 2012 Edition will be licensed:

Enterprise Edition will be available exclusively through processing capacity-based licensing, which will now be measured using cores, not processors. This licensing model aligns pricing to processing power, enabling customers to pay for the power they need.

Business Intelligence Edition will be available exclusively through Server+CAL licensing. With this edition, we are able to offer the full BI functionality of SQL Server 2012 through user-based or device-based licensing, which is consistent with the way most customers want to purchase BI solutions.

Standard Edition will be available through both Server+CAL and core-based licensing. This edition offers flexible licensing options for a wide range of customers with a variety of business needs.

Server/CAL licensing• Enterprise Edition is no longer available in Server/CAL model• SQL Server CAL price will increase

SQL Server 2012 SKUs & licensing


2012 editionsLicensing options

Server+CAL Core-based

EnterpriseHigh-end datacenter w/BI Server capabilities

Business IntelligenceEnterprise BI projects, user-based licensing

StandardDepartmental, limited scale

Customers pay for the power they need

Customers pay for the users they need

Choice of model for basic needs

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License flexibility for the cloudSQL Server 2012 offers the licensing flexibility needed to support hybrid deployment models that span hosted, on-premises, and private cloud with virtualization. With License Mobility under SA, you can load balance applications in your private cloud; and migrate or extend applications to hosted environments. In addition, you can build or extend apps and add SQL Azure to your EA or EAP. Cloud-Optimized License Flexibility

• Load balance in private clouds with License Mobility under Software Assurance (SA).

• Migrate/extend applications to hosted environments with License Mobility under SA.

• Build or extend apps and add SQL Azure to your EA or EAP.


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Core licensing: Same work will cost the sameSame processing power weather its 4 processors with 4 cores each or 2 processors with 8 cores each.

EAP = the best way to purchase SQL• Save up to 40% on SQL Server Enterprise Licenses• Lock in pricing for three years

SQL 2012 Editions & Licensing transitions

Here’s a quick reference chart to help navigate the varying editions of SQL 2012

Enterprise• Mission critical apps• Data warehousing• Highly virtualized environments• Extensive Business Intelligence

requirements • Per core on

Standard• Departmental• Limited BI• Server/CAL or Per Core

Business Intelligence• Scalable reporting and analytics• Server/CAL model only


Same processing power

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Part Four: How the Softchoice SQL TechCheck helps you navigate the transition

In order to take advantage of opportunities to lock in pricing and maximize the licenses you’ve already paid for, it’s critical to get ahead of the new licensing rules now. Softchoice can help you understand how to maximize your licensing spend, calculate your exact physical and virtual licensing requirements, eliminate any risk of being non-compliant, and accurately forecast your future SQL spend.

Our team of Microsoft experts at Softchoice can help you with: • Licensing guidance• Upgrade services• Migration services• Operational Best Practices / Health Check• Professional Integration Services

Contact your Softchoice Microsoft Account Rep today to let us help you navigate these changes.


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Connect with us today. 1.800.268.7638 | www.softchoice.com/microsoft

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