SQL CAL Licences for Business Central

We are moving from Nav 2013 to BC - On-Premise. We have 10 concurrent Users and in BC we will be having 30 Named Users. How many SQL CAL Licenses we should procure?

I see a few options here. Factors such as cost, future needs, etc may influence the choice.

  1. SQL Server license plus user CALS. These CALS are assigned as named users. I find this the better fit when number of users is less or equal to the number of devices used to access SQL.

  2. SQL Server license plus device CALS. These CALS are assigned to each end-user device used to access SQL. This is a better fit if multiple users share devices. Using your example, let’s say those 30 users worked 10 each on 3 shifts and shared 10 computers. It would be more economical to use device CALS.

  3. The other option is processor licensing. This does not require CALs. You license the server’s processors and are allowed unlimited connections. This can be a good choice when there are a large number of users and the cost of CALs would exceed the processor licensing. It is also a requirement if you cannot control the number of users. Such as if you allow external access (i.e. a website) to your system. Since you can’t control how many users, you must license the processors.

Another consideration (maybe) is what happens if you add additional SQL servers in the future. With the CAL approach, you only need to add the new server license. As the CALs allow connections to any SQL Server. With processor licensing, you would need to license the processors for the new server.

This is just a brief overview of the considerations. Hope this is helpful.

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