>By the time you've forked out for the (now suddenly per core rather than CPU[1]!) enterprise license, all the 3rd party backup and restore tools, numerous wind

>By the time you've forked out for the (now suddenly per core rather than CPU[1]!) enterprise license, all the 3rd party backup and restore tools, numerous windows licenses and had your arse audited for license compliance, you're down a lot of cash. SQL Server licensing is pure madness. I will never forget sitting across from a cadre of regional level Microsoft folks who had just finished explaining the intricacies of SQL virtualization licensing. The seemingly straightforward design we envisioned to cost perhaps $120K under any sort of reasonable, logical licensing structure attached to per socket price of SQL would actually run upwards of $1.3M to properly comply with the Microsoft licensing terms. It wasn't even the absurd total or the ridiculous terms that were so memorable. It was the fact the Microsoft folks seemed to be as shocked at our incredulity as we were at their terms. I got the impression they weren't used to providing more than "It's cheaper than Oracle" as justification to receive millions of dollars.