You want to stay here until 2025-2026 – this version has more years left in its support life than SQL Server 2012/2014, so you can install it once and stick around longer.You use Standard Edition – because it supports 128GB RAM (and can even go beyond that for some internal stuff like query plans.).
You’re an independent software vendor (ISV) – because 2016 Service Pack 1 gave you a lot of Enterprise features in Standard Edition.You still have to put in time to find the queries that are gonna get slower, and figure out how to mitigate those.Ģ014 also introduced a few other features that don’t sound like assets today: In-Memory OLTP, which wasn’t production-quality at the time, Buffer Pool Extensions, data files in Azure blobs, backing up to a URL, and Delayed Durability. You need faster performance without changing the code, and you have lots of time to put into testing – 2014’s Cardinality Estimator (CE) changes made for different execution plans, but they’re not across-the-board better.You use log shipping as a reporting tool, and you have tricky permissions requirements (because they added new server-level roles that make this easier.).You need to encrypt your backups, and you’re not willing to buy a third party backup tool.I’d just consider this a minimum starting point for even considering AGs (forget 2012) because starting with 2014, the secondary is readable even when the primary is down. You want to use Always On Availability Groups – but I’m even hesitant to put that here, because they continue to get dramatically better in subsequent versions.You’re dealing with an application whose newest supported version is only SQL Server 2014, but not 2016 or newer.In all, I just can’t recommend 2012 new installs today. You either don’t need robust encryption for your backups, or you’re willing to buy a third party tool to get it.Ģ012 introduced a few other features – Availability Groups, columnstore indexes, contained databases, Data Quality Services – but they were so limited that it’s hard to consider this a good starting point for those features today.You’re comfortable being out of support (because support ends in July 2022.).You’re dealing with an application whose newest supported version is only SQL Server 2012, but not 2014 or newer.But I got a really good deal on this CD at a garage sale You should consider SQL Server 2012 if…
I’m going to go from the dark ages forward, making a sales pitch for each newer version. I know, management wants you to stay on an older build, and the vendor says they’ll only support older versions, but now’s your chance to make your case for a newer version – and I’m gonna help you do it.
Are you sure you’re using the right version? Wait! Before you install that next SQL Server, hold up.