Software Assurance Benefits for SQL Server Licensing
Overview: Software Assurance (SA) is an add-on for Microsoft licenses that provides benefits beyond the base license. For SQL Server, SA can unlock significant value, including free version upgrades, cloud mobility, passive failover rights, and more.
However, many organizations underutilize these benefits, leaving money on the table. This guide details each major software assurance benefit for SQL servers and how to leverage them fully to optimize costs.
Written for IT asset managers, it emphasizes turning SA’s theoretical perks into practical savings in enterprise environments.
Read about SQL Server Licensing.
What is Software Assurance for SQL Server?
Software Assurance is typically purchased with (or added to) SQL Server licenses through Microsoft Volume Licensing agreements. It usually entails an annual fee (around 25% of the license price per year) during which you get various usage rights and services.
Key categories of SA benefits for SQL Server include:
- Upgrade Rights: Upgrade to newer SQL Server versions without buying new licenses.
- License Mobility: Flexible reassignment of licenses and rights to use in cloud/hosted environments.
- Virtualization Rights: Expanded privileges in virtual environments (including unlimited virtualization on Enterprise edition).
- High Availability Rights: Specifically, failover server rights for disaster recovery.
- Planning and Support Benefits: Training vouchers, support incidents, and other services (not directly cost-focused, but useful for IT planning).
Asset managers aim to maximize ROI on SA, ensuring these benefits translate to reduced costs or improved capabilities that would otherwise cost extra.
Version Upgrade Entitlements
With SA, you get new version rights: whenever Microsoft releases a major version of SQL Server, you can upgrade your servers to that version without purchasing a new license.
For example, if you bought SQL Server 2019 with SA, you could upgrade those instances to SQL Server 2022 at no cost. This has several advantages:
- Cost Savings on Upgrades: You avoid the large capital expenditure of new licenses every few years. Over a typical 3-5 year upgrade cycle, SA’s annual fee is usually much less than buying a new license for the latest version.
- Staying Current: Running the latest version can improve performance and security. This reduces operational risk and the potential costs of running outdated software (which might require expensive extended support or be vulnerable to security issues).
- Strategic Flexibility: Knowing you can upgrade under SA means adopting new SQL Server features (e.g., improved analytics or encryption capabilities in newer versions) as soon as they’re stable, giving your organization a tech advantage without a licensing delay.
Maximization Tip: Plan your upgrade cycles to align with your SA term. For instance, if SA ends in 2025 and SQL Server 2025 (hypothetically) is released that year, upgrade before SA expires to lock in the newer version. That way, even if you choose not to renew SA later, you’ll obtain the latest version under the benefit.
License Mobility and Cloud Benefits
One of the most powerful SA features is License Mobility. This allows moving SQL Server licenses across servers or to cloud providers more freely:
- Reassignment Flexibility: A SQL Server license can only be reassigned to a different server every 90 days. With SA, you can reassign on the fly as needed. This is critical in virtualized and containerized environments, where workloads might move frequently for load balancing or failover. Thanks to license mobility, a VM running SQL Server can be live-migrated to another host without violating licensing (provided both hosts are under the same licensing umbrella).
- Cloud Usage – BYOL: SA’s license mobility extends to authorized cloud environments. It means you can take a SQL Server license and use it on a third-party cloud VM (like AWS or a hosting provider) legally. Without SA, bringing a license to the cloud is either disallowed or requires dedicating hardware. Maximizing this: If you have idle on-prem SQL core licenses, you might deploy them on cloud VMs (e.g., an AWS EC2 instance) to handle a workload, rather than paying for a cloud license. Ensure the cloud provider is part of Microsoft’s License Mobility program (AWS, for example, is authorized). This can drastically cut costs for test or backup environments in the cloud.
- Dev/Test Flexibility: License mobility also aids in dev/test scenarios. Suppose your dev team regularly spins up and tears down SQL Server instances in a lab or CI/CD pipeline. With SA, you can reassign licenses to those transient instances without worrying about the 90-day lock. This means you could maintain a pool of SQL licenses and dynamically allocate them to whichever servers are used this week for testing, maximizing utilization of a fixed number of licenses.
Real-World Example: A financial firm uses VMware virtualization. With SA on SQL Server, they implement a dynamic resource cluster. SQL VMs can move across hosts for maintenance or scaling, and SA ensures the licenses move with them seamlessly.
Additionally, during peak load, they clone an extra SQL VM for a short-term analytics job on a new host. License mobility via SA lets them assign an existing license to this new VM and reassign it back to the pool after the task. This agility prevents overbuying licenses for occasional needs.
Read SQL Server Licensing in Hybrid and Multi-Cloud Environments.
Virtualization Rights – Unlimited Virtualization and More
If your organization heavily virtualizes SQL Servers, SA is almost a necessity to optimize costs:
- Unlimited Virtualization (Enterprise Edition): With SQL Server Enterprise Edition, having SA allows unlimited SQL Server instances to run on a fully licensed host. If you license all physical cores of a server with Enterprise + SA, you can run any number of SQL Server VMs on that one host (even mixing versions or editions). This is a massive cost saver in dense virtualization scenarios. Without SA, even the Enterprise edition would require you to license each VM or each core in each VM. Maximization strategy: Identify hosts that run many SQL Server workloads (e.g., a private cloud or virtualization farm). Licensing those hosts with Enterprise+SA and consolidating instances there may be cheaper than licensing many VMs individually. Organizations reduce license counts by half or more by consolidating smaller SQL instances onto a few large hosts and using the unlimited virtualization benefit.
- Flexible Virtualization (Standard Edition benefits): While unlimited VMs is only for Enterprise, SA can still help Standard Edition in virtual scenarios. Microsoft’s updated rules (from SQL 2022 onward) require SA to license at the individual VM level for Standard. In other words, per-VM licensing for newer versions is only allowed with SA. This is because SA gives the mobility rights needed to float that license as VMs move. So, if you run Standard Edition on VMs and don’t want to license entire hosts, maintaining SA is necessary for compliance. This policy change makes SA almost mandatory for flexibly virtualizing SQL Standard.
- Hyper-V and cloud hoster rights: SA also introduced the Flexible Virtualization Benefit (as noted earlier) – for Windows and SQL Server, it means if you have SA, you can allocate licenses to virtual cores in a cloud provider’s shared environment (beyond Azure). This can complement your virtualization strategy by allowing you to choose different hosting options without losing the value of your licenses.
High Availability and Disaster Recovery Benefits
Perhaps one of the most immediately tangible benefits: Passive Failover Rights for high availability.
- With active SA coverage, you can set up a passive secondary instance of SQL Server on a separate server or VM purely for failover purposes without buying a license for that secondary. The condition is that the secondary is truly non-production: it only runs workloads during a failover or for brief testing/maintenance. This applies to scenarios like SQL Server Always On Availability Groups or failover clustering, where one node is passive.
- Cost impact: Without SA, if you wanted a redundant SQL Server for failover, you’d have to fully license it even though it’s mostly idle. SA saves you that cost. For example, an enterprise with a mission-critical database can have a licensed primary server and an unlicensed secondary (with SA covering the primary) ready to take over. In a failure, they can use that secondary for a certain period. This can nearly double the value of a license – two servers for the price of one, in HA configuration.
- Disaster Recovery to Azure: Microsoft extended this concept with Azure: if you have SA, you can use Azure as a DR site for free passive instances. There are allowances to run a passive SQL Server in Azure Virtual Machines as your disaster recovery replica without additional licensing, as long as it’s truly for standby. Another way to maximize SA is to utilize Azure as a failover location (potentially more cost-effective than maintaining a second physical datacenter) and not pay extra license fees for that DR copy.
- Testing of secondaries: SA typically allows the passive instance to be used for routine patching, log shipping, etc., and short-term tests (some guidelines say you can use it for testing for a brief time each quarter). Be sure to follow the exact terms, but do take advantage of this—periodically failover and test on your secondary to ensure DR readiness, since you’re entitled to use it (in a non-production sense) under SA.
Maximizing Azure Hybrid Benefit and Hybrid Rights
Software Assurance is the gateway to the Azure Hybrid Benefit for SQL Server. This was covered earlier in our hybrid cloud article, but in brief:
- If you have SA, you can use your SQL licenses in Azure (on VMs, Azure SQL Managed Instance, etc.) and pay base rates. This can yield roughly 30-50% savings on Azure SQL costs. Action item: Always keep track of how many SQL licenses with SA you have, and make sure any eligible Azure resources are configured to use AHB. It’s surprising how often teams spin up an Azure SQL VM and forget to apply the Hybrid Benefit – essentially paying twice. Asset managers should coordinate with cloud admins to tag those resources for BYOL pricing.
Additionally, SA often includes Dual Use rights (as mentioned), which allow simultaneous use of on-prem and cloud for migrations. Leverage that to avoid downtime or rushed cutovers by running parallel environments during a transition.
Additional SA Benefits to Leverage
While the above are core licensing benefits, consider these ancillary perks which, if you have them, can indirectly save costs:
- Planning Services (Note: Microsoft has been evolving these programs): In the past, SA included Planning Service days where Microsoft or partners helped you plan deployments or upgrades. If still available, use them for a SQL Server upgrade or cloud migration roadmap—this expertise could prevent costly mistakes or delays.
- Training and Support: SA often comes with training vouchers and a certain number of support incidents. Use training vouchers to keep your DBAs and asset management team updated on licensing changes or new SQL features (educated staff make better cost decisions). Use support incidents for critical SQL issues instead of paying extra for support calls.
- Step-Up Licensing: A feature with SA is the ability to “step up” from Standard Edition to Enterprise by paying the price difference, rather than buying a full new Enterprise license. If you foresee needing Enterprise capabilities, this can be cost-effective. For example, you have a Standard license with SA and your application outgrows it – use a Step-up license to convert it to Enterprise rather than purchasing Enterprise from scratch. Plan this during budget cycles; it can ease the financial impact of scaling up.
Renewal and Coverage Strategies
To maximize SA, you must maintain active coverage. Do not let SA lapse without a conscious decision. If it lapses, you lose these benefits immediately (no more upgrade rights, failover rights, etc.).
This could leave you stuck on older versions or require relicensing if you later need those features.
Strategic approach for renewals:
- Evaluate SA value annually: list which benefits you utilized in the past year and their approximate monetary value. For example, “Used AHB on 5 Azure VMs saved $X, performed version upgrades that saved buying Y licenses, enabled failover server saving $Z.” Compare this to the SA cost. This builds the business case for renewal (or if the benefits aren’t used, consider adjusting strategy or, in rare cases, not renewing for certain licenses).
- Stagger or align SA with usage: If certain deployments are static and you don’t need upgrades or mobility, you might choose not to renew SA. Conversely, SA is highly valuable for any SQL Server involved in virtualization, cloud, or HA – ensure those stay covered.
- Consider cloud subscriptions as an alternative: Microsoft now offers subscription licensing (through CSP programs) for SQL Server, which inherently includes SA-like benefits. Some companies find value in shifting from perpetual+SA to a subscription model for flexibility. If you do, ensure you fully utilize the analogous benefits (since a subscription includes upgrade rights, mobility, etc., by default).
Recommendations for IT Asset Managers
- Inventory SA Benefits: Keep an inventory of which SQL Server licenses have SA and what benefits apply. Map out where each benefit is used (e.g., list of servers using passive failover rights, Azure VMs using Hybrid Benefit from SA, etc.). This helps identify underutilization.
- Educate Technical Teams: Ensure that DBAs and infrastructure teams know that they can spin up a dev/test SQL Server using existing licenses (if SA mobility covers it) or that they have failover rights. Often, money is wasted on extra licenses or cloud costs simply because teams weren’t aware of the rights they could exercise.
- Plan Upgrades Proactively: Use your SA upgrade rights to stay on supported versions. This avoids hefty fees for extended support on old versions and keeps your environment secure. Budget time and resources for upgrades since the license cost is covered.
- Leverage HA/DR Rights: If high availability is important to your organization, design your SQL deployments with a passive secondary, and remember that it doesn’t require a license under SA. For disaster recovery, consider Azure or a secondary data center with the knowledge that the license is covered. Document these deployments as “covered by SA passive rights” to avoid audit confusion.
- Optimize Virtualization Licensing: Use SA to its fullest in virtual environments. For example, if you are spinning up many SQL Server VMs, calculate if moving to an unlimited virtualization model (Enterprise+SA on hosts) is cheaper. Present a case to finance, as it might mean a larger upfront license purchase but big savings long-term.
- Monitor SA Renewal Dates: Keep track of when SA agreements expire. Missing a renewal window can be costly (re-enrolling might not be possible or might require buying new licenses). Engage with Microsoft or your reseller well in advance to co-term and renew strategically. Also negotiate: if you’ve been using SA heavily, that’s leverage to get better pricing or credits.
- Consider Azure-as-DR: If you have SA but a limited budget for a secondary data center, consider using Azure for disaster recovery. Since the license is covered, you’d only pay Azure for storage and minimal compute until a failover happens. This can be a smart insurance policy at a low cost, enabled purely by your SA rights.
