I'm engaged in a debate with a SQL architect about consolidation of SQL. I recently built a Hyper-V environment with megaloads of compute resource to serve as a common platform for all of the customer's VM requirements (barring exceptional workloads).
Consequently, the number of cores in each host are high and given that MS changed their SQL licensing to a per-core model, licensing each physical host for unlimited virtualisation rights of SQL server produces costs verging on the insane.
So, I asked to see the architect's consolidation plan to find out just how many production VMs were required to see if per-virtual core (min.4) licensing would make more sense. I found that for each different service a set of databases was serving (BI, System Center, some OLTP etc.) he had created a separate VM, each of which would require an Enterprise...