Eliminating SQL Server licensing: our move to PostgreSQL
The issue. Microsoft SQL Server is licensed per processor core, forever. A mid-size 8-core server runs about $60,000 in licenses up front, plus roughly $15,000 a year in maintenance — and the bill grows every time the hardware grows. For a database that mostly stores and serves data, that's a big check written to a vendor for no added value.
What we did. We moved a production data warehouse off SQL Server and onto self-managed PostgreSQL — same data, same reports, the licensing meter switched off. PostgreSQL is open-source, so the license cost is $0, forever, even in the cloud. We kept the old system online and read-only as a safety net until the new one was proven, so there was no risky all-at-once cutover.
Proving nothing broke. The real fear with a database move is silent data corruption — wrong totals, doubled rows, shifted dates that pass a quick look and surface weeks later. So we didn't just move the data, we proved it: we compared every table on both systems and ran the reports side by side. The result was zero differences — and we caught and closed a subtle "doubled data" trap by loading twice and confirming the count never moved.
The benefits.
- Licensing cost eliminated — $0, permanently, with no vendor lock-in.
- Runs on any cloud or hardware you choose.
- Faster where it counts: a report that used to grind for hours now finishes in under a second.
- Verified correct table by table — not "looks fine."
If you're facing a SQL Server renewal, this is exactly the move we can run for you: the bill gone, the data proven intact.
Want it handled? → curt@fusionreporting.com