Microsoft has just released SQL Server 2016 Service Pack 1 (SP1) . The release has created quite a stir because Microsoft has made a major licensing changes – most notably every edition of SQL Server now gets every feature. Quoting PC Week , the only time users will have to pay to upgrade to higher edition is for greater hardware limits such as maximum CPU socket/core counts and maximum RAM. All the latest and greatest, novel and powerful database features such as partitioning, in-memory, and all others are now free – even the lowly express edition of the database. This will allow typical users to start at the lowest edition based upon hardware sizing, and then allow them to upgrade easily without having to worry about application impacts. Furthermore it will allow Independent Software Vendors (ISV's) to use the free express edition while still getting the benefit of all the advanced features for their product's repositories which users can then upgrade as needed. What effect will this move have on the database world? Can other database vendors maintain their existing pricing structure or will changes be required? Add to this latest announcement the prior announcement where Microsoft is already previewing its SQL Server port to Linux , and thus we surely have some interesting times ahead in 2017.
↧