Ed Wagner (10/21/2014)
The SQL Server Agent is a big deal. Without it, you'll have to create your own scheduler for things like backups, database consistency checks, index tuning, updating statistics and so on. If you can get the "powers that be" to get a full version, it's definitely the way to go.
Absolutely. There are some third party tools, I've seen some T-SQL workarounds to not having Agent and I believe there's a way to use Windows task Scheduler, but when all is said and done it's best just to bite the bullet and get a full version for business use.
I discovered the lack of Agent when I was tinkering aorund at home with Express 2012 trying to learn how to script job creation and scheduling as opposed to using SSMS. As you can imagine, it didn't work very well :rolleyes:
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Just my $0.02 from over here in the cheap seats of the peanut gallery - please adjust for inflation and/or your local currency.