For some of the customer who use our Healthcare Info. System Product (developed on Asp .Net and MS SQL), there has been cases of upgrade from SQL 2008 to SQL 2012 or customers who end up purchasing SQL 2012. We went through all the confusions about SQL Licensing. One part that I am clear is that, as per the licensing documentation (available in MS website) that a minimum of two-core pack is to be bought even if your processor has only one core. So if you need to install SSAS 2012 in one server, SSRS 2012 in another server, you need to buy licenses separately. SQL 2012 is available as paper license and so you can swap the licenses between servers if one server is not working. If your server has 4 cores, you need to buy 2 twin-core pack. One pack you will install and the other will be a paper license which you have to show if there is an Audit from MS.

The confusing part is - if my application is hosted in a IIS server and connecting to a separate SQL server, can't I just buy 1 CAL and use it in the server, since I will always be connecting to the SQL via connection string in my web.config and there shall be only "user" who will be connecting to the server? I have not answer for this with whoever I checked and looks like even Steve Ballmer may not know. If its CAL based, the cost is much lower (Standard - 800 USD and Enterprise 1500 USD if I am right) which is much more economical compared to core based pricing

Vijay,

Attune Technologies,

Chennai, India