How to Convince Your Boss to Carry Out a SQL Server Licensing Review

You know the importance of staying on top of your SQL Server licenses and you are the one that feels the pain when true-up rolls around.

But why should your boss care? After all, the IT department has an ever-growing list of priorities, why should a licensing review be one?

Here’s our top tips for convincing your boss that a licensing review can benefit your company, as well as you.

It Will Boost Your IT Budget

On average, we’re able to identify opportunities to reduce our client’s licensing spend between 60-80%. At $14,256 USD per Enterprise Core*, the savings soon add up.

Its Value Can Be Measured

Your boss will want to know if the spend is worth it. The short answer is yes, definitely.

You would only need to consolidate one Enterprise Core for the licensing review to pay for itself AND have money left over.

The Money Saved Can Be Used For Modernisation

A boost to your budget means you can modernise your environment without having to approach the finance department. Make use of the features and benefits that come with newer versions of SQL Server including:

AlwaysOn – Meet the ever-increasing need for High Availability with the AlwaysOn feature, available in SQL Server 2012 Enterprise and all subsequent releases.
In-Memory OLTP – In-Memory OLTP can significantly improve the performance of transaction processing, data ingestion and data load, and transient data scenarios. Microsoft’s latest in-memory processing technology, originally shipped in SQL Server 2014.
Stretch DB – If you have plans to move to the cloud, you could run into compatibility issues if you have legacy versions of SQL Server. Microsoft’s Stretch DB technology provides a consistent set of tools and processes between on-premises and cloud-based environments. Available in SQL Server 2016.
Operational Analytics – Benefit from enhanced reporting services and in-memory analytics out of the box – available in SQL Server 2016.
Security features – With data being one of your organisations most valuable assets, you want to be sure it’s safe. In SQL Server 2016, you have the option to implement row level security, dynamic data masking, always encrypted, enhanced transparent data encryptions.
Continued vendor support – Service packs and patches aren’t released by Microsoft for versions of SQL Server that are 10 or more years old, meaning known issues can be left unresolved.
Scalability – Newer versions of SQL Server allow you to support more cores and benefit from more memory, making you far less likely to hit your limit.