Licensing SQL Server Under the Server + CAL Model

Many SQL Server customers have all or a significant portion of their deployed SQL Servers licensed under the Server + CAL model, which generally requires a server license for each server running SQL Server and a Client Access License (CAL) for each client user or device accessing these servers. However, licensing and packaging changes over the past few years mean organizations have to understand the current rules to ensure license compliance and to decide whether it is appropriate to continue licensing SQL Server under the Server + CAL model or to transition to the alternative Per-Core model.

(For a summary of Server + CAL licensing and packaging changes made from version 2008 through version 2014, see the chart “Server + CAL Licensing Rules for Recent SQL Server Versions“.)

Licensing Rules for SQL Server Editions

SQL Server 2012 and 2014 offer the same three editions for production use—Standard, Business Intelligence (BI), and Enterprise—licensed under the Server + CAL model, at the same price points. Each edition contains a superset of the technical capabilities of the edition below it (sometimes referred to as a “Russian doll” model): Enterprise edition being the most full-featured and Standard edition the least, with SQL Server BI edition in between.