Microsoft’s SQL Server 2012’s final versions in gritty detail

Hey there fans of the enterprise, we have a tasty treat for you today: the finals SKUs for the forthcoming Microsoft SQL Server 2012 product. Oddly, I wasn’t being facetious when I just said that.

As SQL Server 2012 is coming in the early parts of next year, it’s high time that we all knew what was inside. Happily, Microsoft has dropped that information. There are some changes going forward that are worthy of note, however, so put on your smart kid cap.

Microsoft, according to sharp-eyed reporting on ZDNet, is axing three different editions of SQL Server: Datacenter, Workgroup, and Standard for Small Business. There are three main versions moving forward, not including the Web Developer and Express editions. The three: Enterprise, Business Intelligence, and Standard. Someone at Microsoft really needs to be hit over the head for violating the rules of good taste as they apply to versioning. Now, here is what each edition contains:

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As of the moment, no one knows how Microsoft is going to price this product. I would argue that the past provides some guidance here, but we’ll have to wait and see. In regards to licensing, for ‘Enterprise,’ it will be core-based, for ‘Business Intelligence’ it will be handled with a Client Access License, and for Standard the purchaser can pick between the two.

But what is in the product itself? We can tell you that too:

Microsoft claims that the final product will deliver a “highly available and scalable platform” that will “lower TCO” and boost “ease of use.” The company also claims that it will “help developers build innovative applications with reduced time-to-market” and supply “new managed self-service experiences for end users and holistic data integration and management tools.” Marketing drivel aside, TNWmicrosoft feels that the following two features are what might make Denali favored in the market, as reported by ZDnet: SQL Server AlwaysOn, and Project codename “Apollo” which is set to boost query performance.

When we find out the final ship date, we will bring that to you. For now, it appears to be a waiting game.