Sunday, November 24, 2013

Quick Note on SQL Server 2012 Licensing Cost

When it comes to purchasing Microsoft SQL Server, I know for a fact, many finds difficulty on selecting the edition and calculating the cost. Here is a quick note I made on it, it was based on a discussion had for selecting the edition and licensing it.

  Enterprise Business Intelligence Standard
Options available Core-based only Server + CALs only Core-based
or
Server + CALs
Price USD 6,874 per core
(four-core minimum per socket)
Server – USD 8,592
CAL – USD 209
USD 1,793 per core
(four-core minimum per socket)
-
Server – USD 898 CAL – USD 209

Again, calculating the price for core-based is not just core price into number of cores. It is based on something called Core Factor. Refer this table to determine the core factor for your processor;

Processor Type Core Factor
All processors not mentioned below 1
AMD Processors 31XX, 32XX, 41XX, 42XX, 61XX, 62XX Series Processors with 6 or more cores 0.75
Single-Core Processors 4
Dual-Core Processors 2

Number of core licenses to be purchased is based on formula: Number of cores * Core Factor. Here is an example for calculating core-based cost for Enterprise Edition;

1. 2 Intel Xeon 6-core processors

Total physical cores – 12
Core factor – 1
Core licenses required = 12 x 1 = 12
Cost for Enterprise Edition = 12 x USD 6,874 = USD 82,488