SQL Server 2012 Editions

SQL Server 2012 is obtainable in three main editions. All three editions have tighter alignment than
their predecessors and were designed to meet the needs of almost any customer with an increased investment in business intelligence. Each edition comes in a 32-bit and 64-bit version. The main
editions, as shown in Figure 1-7, are the following:

• Standard edition
• Business Intelligence edition
• Enterprise edition

Enterprise Edition

The Enterprise edition of SQL Server 2012 is the uppermost SKU; it is meant to meet the highest
demands of large-scale datacenters and data warehouse solutions by providing mission-critical
performance and availability for Tier 1 applications, the ability to deploy private-cloud, highly
virtualized environments, and large centralized or external-facing business-intelligence solutions.

The Enterprise edition features include the following:

• Maximum number of cores is subject to the operating system being used
• Advanced high availability can be achieved with AlwaysOn
• Unlimited virtualization if the organization has software insurance
• Support for the new columnstore indexing feature
• Advanced auditing
• Transparent Data Encryption (TDE)
• Compression and partitioning
• Includes all of the Business Intelligence edition’s features and capabilities:
• Reporting
• Analytics
• Multidimensional BI semantic model
• Data-quality services
• Master data services
• In-memory tabular BI semantic model
• Self-service business intelligence

Standard Edition

The Standard edition is a data-management platform tailored toward departmental databases and limited business-intelligence applications that are typically appropriate for medium-class solutions,
smaller organizations, or departmental solutions. It does not include all the bells and whistles of the
Enterprise and Business Intelligence editions; however, it continues to offer best-in-class manageability and ease of use. Compared to the Enterprise and Business Intelligence editions, the Standard edition supports up to 16 cores and includes the following:

• Spatial support
• FileTable
• Policy-based management
• Corporate business intelligence
• Reporting
• Analytics
• Multidimensional BI semantic model
• Basic high availability can be achieved with AlwaysOn 2-Node Failover Clustering
• Up to four processors, up to 64 GB of RAM, one virtual machine, and two failover clusterin nodes

Business Intelligence Edition

For the first time in the history of SQL Server, a Business Intelligence edition is offered. The Business Intelligence edition offers organizations the full suite of powerful BI capabilities such as scalable reporting and analytics, Power View, and PowerPivot. It is tailored toward organizations trying to achieve corporate business intelligence and self-service capabilities, but that do not require the full online transactional processing (OLTP) performance and scalability found in the Enterprise edition of SQL Server 2012. Here is a high-level list of what the new Business Intelligence edition includes:

• Up to a maximum of 16 cores for the Database Engine
• Maximum number of cores for business intelligence processing
• All of the features found in the Standard edition
• Corporate business intelligence
• Reporting
• Analytics
• Multidimensional BI semantic model
• Self-service capabilities
• Alerting
• Power View
• PowerPivot for SharePoint Server
• Enterprise data management
• Data quality services
• Master data services
• In-memory tabular BI semantic model
• Basic high availability can be achieved with AlwaysOn 2-Node Failover Clustering

Specialized Editions

Above and beyond the three main editions discussed earlier, SQL Server 2012 continues to deliver
specialized editions for organizations that have a unique set of requirements. Some examples include
the following:

• Developer The Developer edition includes all of the features and functionality found in the Enterprise edition; however, it is meant strictly for the purpose of development, testing, and demonstration. Note that you can transition a SQL Server Developer installation directly into production by upgrading it to SQL Server 2012 Enterprise without reinstallation.

• Web Available at a much more affordable price than the Enterprise and Standard editions, SQL Server 2012 Web is focused on service providers hosting Internet-facing web services environments. Unlike the Express edition, this edition doesn’t have database size restrictions, it supports four processors, and supports up to 64 GB of memory. SQL Server 2012 Web does not offer the same premium features found in Enterprise and Standard editions, but it still remains the ideal platform for hosting websites and web applications.

• Express This free edition is the best entry-level alternative for independent software vendors, nonprofessional developers, and hobbyists building client applications. Individuals learning about databases or learning how to build client applications will find that this edition meets all their needs. This edition, in a nutshell, is limited to one processor and 1 GB of memory, and it can have a maximum database size of 10 GB. Also, Express is integrated with Microsoft Visual Studio.