Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 is scalable, cost-effective, data management software that helps unlock the power of your company's data assets. Whether you're offering mission-critical, highly available applications or shared hosting solutions, SQL Server 2008 takes affordability, scalability, manageability, and programmability to a new level. Four Microsoft SQL Server 2008 editions are designed to meet your Web hosting needs: Web, Standard, Enterprise, and Express.
Competitively priced SQL Server 2008 database software helps increase overall profit margins, publishing tools facilitate faster customer deployment, and tools for Policy-Based Management and performance data collection reduce administration costs. Save even more by installing SQL Server 2008 on a Hyper-V™–based server: Licensing SQL Server 2008 Enterprise to the host partition allows you to use it on all the guests. This way you can divide the licensing costs among all guests.
With the Web and Enterprise editions, scale your business with unlimited memory support or database size. SQL Server 2008 supports multiple CPUs: 32 CPUs for Enterprise and 4 CPUs for Web
Already compatible with popular PHP open source applications, SQL Server offers built-in support for PHP applications as well as seamless interoperability with the Microsoft .NET environment. The ADO.NET Entity Framework helps increase developer productivity, and new LINQ extensions revolutionize how developers query data. Also included is support for basic to advanced data types, including spatial, date/time, word documents, videos, and images. This helps you meet a variety of customer application requirements.
SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) with built-in business intelligence is included in SQL Server 2008, making it possible to create unique layouts and use the new visualization enhancements to further enrich your reports.
From the basic capabilities needed for a shared hosting platform requiring support for Microsoft .NET and PHP technologies, to Hyper-V–based virtual servers, to the sophisticated needs of a dedicated server, SQL Server 2008 can accommodate and grow with your data management needs.
Enterprise:
An enterprise-class data platform for your advanced hosted application needs such as online transaction processing and data warehousing applications. Advanced security capabilities such as transparent data encryption help secure data without modifying applications. Audits can be defined to automatically record activity in log files, the Windows® Application Log, or the Windows Security Log. Sophisticated built-in business intelligence makes it possible to add rich reporting capabilities to your applications, and then share them through Microsoft Office SharePoint® Server 2007 and other tools. For even more advanced reporting needs and powerful analysis, use SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services (SSAS) to create highly customized reports for actionable insights into your data.
Standard:
A comprehensive data platform that includes a high-performance database engine and business intelligence services. SQL Server 2008 Standard is ideal for medium to large scale Web sites and hosted business applications, or for scenarios that require reporting and analytical capabilities.
Web:
A low-cost, highly scalable database that is designed specifically for Web hosting market. SQL Server 2008 Web offers many of the features of SQL Server Standard for a lower cost, but can only be licensed for public-facing Web sites and applications. With a low monthly licensing price, support for four CPUs, and no limits on memory or database, the Web edition is ideal for Web developers, small and midsize businesses, and consumers.
Express:
A version of SQL Server 2008 that meets entry-level database needs. Available by free download.
Policy-Based Management, which allows administrators to efficiently manage their databases. You can define one set of configuration policies and apply them across all servers.
Resource Governor, which allows administrators to define resource limits and priorities per user group, minimizing the impact of potential runaway queries and providing mission-critical workloads with the resources they need.
Performance Data Collection, which integrates the collection, analysis, and troubleshooting of SQL Server diagnostics information, gathering all performance data across servers into one centralized dashboard.
Database Publishing Wizard, included in the SQL Server Hosting Toolkit, which allows you to easily deploy databases from your development computers into the hosted environment.
Windows PowerShell™ Script, which lets you write powerful scripts to automate various administrative tasks.
SQL Server Driver for PHP, which means you can use SQL Server 2008 as the database for your PHP applications in addition to utilizing the power of Microsoft .NET and PHP together. The Windows Server® 2008 operating system also has native support for PHP, and most popular open source applications have already incorporated SQL Server 2008 support.
| Feature | Express | Web | Standard | Enterprise |
CPU Supported |
1 | 4 | 4 | 32 |
| RAM Supported | 1 GB | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| DB Size Limit | 4 GB | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Policy-Based Management | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Resource Governor | No | No | No | Yes |
| Performance Data Collection | No | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SQL Driver for PHP | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ADO.NET Data Services | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Advanced Data Types | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Transparent Data Encryption | No | No | No | Yes |
| All-actions-audited | No | No | No | Yes |
| Reporting Services | Express | Express | Standard | Enterprise |
| Database Publishing Wizard | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Hosting Option | Entry-level Dedicated | Shared Dedicated | Shared Dedicated | Advanced Shared Dedicated |
