Mistake: choosing Enterprise because a database is large. A 2 TB database, availability-group plans, or SSIS does not by itself establish an Enterprise requirement. Standard supports databases up to 524 PB, matching Enterprise; capacity planning should test whether its processor and memory limits are sufficient. section 8.5
Check these practical constraints before paying for Enterprise:
- Measure the workload instead of assuming that database size demands more processor or memory; Standard supports 128 GB of RAM and 24 cores, or four processor sockets. section 8.5
- Compare licensing costs after capacity planning: for a 16-core requirement, the stated two-core-pack prices produce an $89,424 saving with Standard. section 8.5
- Make the production edition an explicit installation parameter, allowing scripted deployments to choose Standard or Enterprise rather than relying on an accidental default. section 8.8
MagicChoc’s 2 TB database
MagicChoc selected Enterprise for a 2 TB Marketing database needing a synchronous availability-group replica and SSIS. The safer first step is capacity planning: if Standard’s limits meet the measured workload, the larger edition adds avoidable cost. section 8.5
Listing 8.4 Discovering Enterprise-only features
USE EnterpriseDatabase ; GO SELECT feature_name FROM sys.dm_db_persisted_sku_features ;
Run the persisted-SKU query to identify Enterprise-only features in a database before treating an edition requirement as an assumption. section 8.5
