Lowell (12/1/2016)
a quick google shows me enterprise licenses for SQL2016 are $7,128 per core, so MSRP would be select 7128.00 * 16 = $114,048.00At the PASS conference Glenn Berry noted it's a dangerous pitfall where the DBA is not in sync with the guy who orders hardware, because the hardware cost of getting more cores is trivial when licensing is not trivial at all;
one of his examples was a half million license cost example, as i remember.
Yeah, pretty much. Only in this case you wouldn't need 16 licenses. Each license is worth 2 cores, so more accurately: $7,128.00 * 8 = $57,024. If you have an Enterprise Agreement, and you buy those licenses at the beginning of your 3-year contract, then that cost is divided up among the three years. Making it $57,024 / 3 years = $19,008 per year. And yes, do not let your hardware guys replace machines without talking to the Microsoft licensing guy first! Especially since Microsoft just applied the same rules to Windows Server 2016 (although one Windows Server 2016 license is worth 8-cores, I believe).
Oh, and BTW, that's about 1/6th the cost of Oracle, depending on who you ask.