SQL Server 2008 Enterprise and Standard Feature Compare

The question frequently asked, which features are supported in which editions of SQL Server. The table below provides a high level comparison of the key capabilities between SQL Server 2008 Enterprise and Standard:

Detailed Feature Comparison	SQL Server 2008 Enterprise	SQL Server 2008 Standard
Scalability & Performance
Number of CPUs	OS Maximum	4
x32 hardware support	Available	Available
x64 hardware support	Available	Available
I64 hardware support	Available	Not Available
Multi-instance support	50 instances	16 Instances
50 instances	Available	Available
16 instances	Available	Not Available
Hypervisor support	Available	Not Available
Dynamic address windows extensions memory management	Available	Not Available
Table and index partitioning	Available	Not Available
Parallel index operations	Available	Not Available
Parallel consistency checks (DBCC)	Available	Not Available
Database snapshots	Available	Not Available
Scalable shared databases	Available	Not Available
Indexed views	Available	Not Available
Enhanced read-ahead and scan	Available	Not Available
High Availability (Always On)
Log Stream Compression	Available	Available
Clustering	16-node failover clustering	2-node failover clustering
Database mirroring	Full	Single-thread
Online operations	Available	Not Available
Resource governor	Available	Not Available
Backup compression	Available	Not Available
Hot-add memory and CPU support	Available	Not Available
Database snapshots	Available	Not Available
Fast recovery	Available	Not Available
Online page and file restore	Available	Not Available
Parallel index operations	Available	Not Available
Updated distributed partioned views	Available	Not Available
Table and index partitioning	Available	Not Available
Enterprise Security
Data encryption	Transparent Data Encryption	Limited
Data encryption	Advanced third-party key management	Limited
Auditing	Security auditing	C2 compliant tracing
Data Warehousing
Partitioned table parallelism	Available	Not Available
Data compression	Available	Not Available
Star join query optimizations	Available	Not Available
Change data capture (CDC)	Available	Not Available
Business Intelligence
Analysis Services
Analysis Services backup	Available	Available
Dimension, Attribute Relationship, Aggregate & Cube Design	Available	Available
Personalization extensions	Available	Available
Analysis Services scalable shared databases	Available	Not Available
Account intelligence	Available	Not Available
Linked measures and dimensions	Available	Not Available
Perspectives	Available	Not Available
Semi-additive measures	Available	Not Available
Writeback dimensions	Available	Not Available
Proactive caching	Available	Not Available
Auto parallel partition processing	Available	Not Available
Partitioned cubes and distributed partitioned cubes	Available	Not Available
Data Mining
Comprehensive set of DM algorithms	Available	Available
Integrated Data Mining Tools (Wizards, Editors, Model Viewers, Query Builder)	Available	Available
Excel 2007 and Visio 2007 Add-in Support	Available	Available
Parallel model processing	Available	Not Available
Support for Plug-in Algorithms	Available	Not Available
Advanced configuration and tuning options for Data Mining algorithms	Available	Not Available
Support for Pipeline Data Mining and Text Mining with Integration Services	Available	Not Available
Integration Services
SQL Server import and export wizard	Available	Available
SSIS run-time	Available	Available
Basic data profiling tools	Available	Available
SSIS Package Designer & Service	Available	Available
Data Mining query transformation	Available	Not Available
Data Mining model training destination adapter	Available	Not Available
Fuzzy grouping transformation	Available	Not Available
Fuzzy lookup transformation	Available	Not Available
Term extraction transformation	Available	Not Available
Term lookup transformation	Available	Not Available
Dimension processing destination adapter	Available	Not Available
Partition processing destination adapter	Available	Not Available
Reporting Services
Microsoft Office integration	Available	Available
Built-in forms authentication	Available	Available
Report server application embedding	Available	Available
Ad-hoc reporting (Report Builder)	Available	Available
Scale-out operational report configuration	Available	Not Available
Data-driven report subscriptions	Available	Not Available
Report scale-out deployment	Available	Not Available
Infinite click-through in ad-hoc reports	Available	Not Available
Enterprise Manageability
Policy-Based Management	Available	Available
Plan Freezing	Available	Available
Streamlined Installation	Available	Available
Performance Data Collection	Available	Available
Standard Performance Reports	Available	Available
SQL Server Management Studio Tools	Available	Available
Auto server group management	Available	Not Available
Mirrored backup media	Available	Not Available
Multi-server administration	Available	Not Available
VIA protocol support	Available	Not Available
Unlimited virtualization	Available	Not Available
Programmability
Common Language Runtime (CLR) Integration	Available	Available
Native XML Support	Available	Available
XML Indexing	Available	Available
Spatial Support	Available	Available
Filestream Support	Available	Available

SQL Server 2008 Enterprise
SQL Server 2008 Enterprise is a comprehensive data platform for running mission critical online transaction processing (OLTP), data warehousing (DW) and business intelligence (BI) applications. SQL Server 2008 Enterprise provides enterprise class scalability, high availability and security to meet the high demands of these applications.
Enterprise is ideally suited for the following usage scenarios:
- Mission critical deployments requiring high availability and uptime
- Existing large scale OLTP deployments
- OLTP deployments that expect to grow rapidly in the future
- Large scale reporting and analysis deployments
- Data Warehousing