21 Nov Get more Microsoft SQL Server for less money, Enterprise features made available in Standard Edition 2016 SP1

Posted at 16:09h in Solutions by
  • Microsoft just made Service Pack 1 for Microsoft SQL Server 2016 available (November 15th 2016). However, this is not just a Service Pack like the other ones! Beside the fixes also released in Cumulative Update (CU) 1, 2 and 3, this Service Pack opens the gate to some exciting Enterprise features across all SQL Server editions.This means the Standard and Express Edition will now include some Enterprise features when the SP1 has been installed. Some of the features which will be made available via this new Service Pack on Standard Edition:
    • Performance features:
      • In-memory OLTP
      • In-memory ColumnStore
      • Operational Analytics
    • Data warehousing features:
      • Partitioning
      • Compression
      • Change data capture
      • Database snapshot
      • PolyBase
    • Security features:
      • Always encrypted
      • fine-grained auditing
      • row-level security
      • dynamic data masking

    But before you start to downgrade all your Enterprise Edition databases to Standard Edition 2016 SP1, there are some limitations to take into account. The amount of memory for the Columnstore for instance, will be limited (except on Enterprise Edition) to 25% of the allowed memory (so 25% of 128GB for a Standard Edition). Creating big Columnstore tables (some Terabytes) is still possible, only the memory is limited to the 25% rule. The good thing is that the 25% will be added on top of the maximum allowed memory (so for Standard Edition 32GB (Columnstore object pool) + 128GB (Buffer pool) will be allowed to use).

    There are also some other limitations, but depending on your needs this does not need to be a problem.

    At the end, this is a good way for customers to save some money on their licenses and support costs. Curious if your new or existing databases can be installed/migrated to a Microsoft SQL Server Standard Edition 2016 SP1? Want to see if you can save some money? Just ask us for more information about how we can look together towards what’s possible for your certain case and if your databases can run on Standard Edition 2016 SP1 without performance degradation etc… Contact us by phone: +32 3 450 67 89, via e-mail: info@monin-it.be or by filling in the form on this page.

    Some interesting links: