SQL Server Developer edition provides exactly the same technical features as SQL Server Enterprise edition, with restrictive licensing rights limiting it to development, testing, and sales demonstrations.

Widely publicized changes announced by Microsoft in a long blog post will help Cloud Solution Providers but will not change licensing terms for AWS, GCP, or Alibaba.

Customers directed to transition from Enterprise Agreements to Microsoft Customer Agreements must reassess how they license server software.

The sudden deprecation and eventual removal of SQL Server 2019’s Big Data Clusters feature marks a significant change in how Microsoft supports perpetually licensed products, and what support life cycles mean.

Extended Security Updates (ESUs) can provide security patches for select Windows, Windows Server, and SQL Server versions that are otherwise no longer supported by Microsoft but vary in their duration and type of updates offered.

ESUs can provide security patches for select Windows, Windows Server, and SQL Server versions that are otherwise no longer supported by Microsoft, but their costs and duration depend on the platform used to host impacted workloads.

Device-based subscriptions that provide at least three years of security updates and bulletins for legacy versions of SQL Server once they have left the Extended Support lifecycle phase.

SQL Server customers might have to purchase additional licenses or employ other licensing tactics to control costs when performing rolling upgrades of SQL Server farms.

Options exist for organizations to reduce costs on long-running Azure SQL workloads.

Typically, SQL Server is deployed in development and test environments using developer-specific licenses, but alternatives should be considered.