Pricing and Licensing

SQL 2000 introduces higher prices for the Enterprise Edition (EE) and a new, per-processor licensing model for Web use (see the chart “SQL Server Licensing Models“). The older Concurrent-Use and Internet Connector models permitted by SQL 7 are replaced by per-processor licensing in SQL 2000. Per-seat licensing is still available and is still the most cost-effective model for small shops and for companies where users access several different servers. Some relevant points of the new pricing and licensing are as follows:

Price increase for EE. The estimated retail price (ERP) for SQL 2000 EE is US$11,099 with 25 Client Access Licenses (CALs). The corresponding price for SQL 7 EE is US$8,009.

Web price increase. Companies using SQL Server on public Web sites must buy one or more per-processor licenses for their servers. A single per-processor license is US$4,999 for SQL 2000 Standard and US$19,999 for EE (estimated retail). This is more expensive than the now-discontinued Internet Connector license, which cost US$2,999 per processor. On the other hand, per-processor licenses cover all users, whereas an Internet Connector license didn’t cover employees or partners of the company that owned it.