Customer Success Testimonial: Recovery is Everything

Microsoft is bumping up the price of its SQL Server database for the first time in four years.

The company said Tuesday that the Standard and Enterprise editions of SQL Server 2008 R2, coming next year, will see increases in the price you pay per processor.

Server pricing and Client Access Licenses, bought with that server license, remain unchanged.

The brand new Datacenter and Parallel Data Warehouse editions of SQL Server 2008 R2 will be priced the same - $57,500 per processor - and won't come with server and CAL option, Microsoft said at its Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) conference in Seattle, Washington.

It's the first time SQL Server will have gone up since SQL Server 2005 in November 2005. Microsoft said it is adjusting the price "based on the added value of features" its adding, including Master Data Services, StreamInsight, PowerPivot, and data compression.

Clearly sensitive about price rise, Microsoft claimed SQL Server 2008 R2 will remain up to a third cheaper than Oracle.

Commenting on the increased SQL Server 2008 R2 prices, Microsoft said: "Customers that do see price increases will also gain greater value around scalability and enabling customers to take advantage of the latest hardware innovations to help them continue to keep overall TCO low."

Separately, Microsoft said it's giving Oracle OnDemand CRM and Salesforce.com customers who switch to its rival Dynamics CRM Online seven months free service.

Microsoft will give users who migrate six months free access to Dynamics CRM Online in addition to a 30-day free trial. Microsoft's hosted business applications service is already priced lower than Salesforce.com and Oracle on a monthly basis - $44 a month versus $65 and $70.

The cut is a clear attempt to drive customer adoption and hit chief operating officer Kevin Turner's corporate objective of growing Microsoft's market share. ®

Agentless Backup is Not a Myth