In this blog, Joe Pollock, Head of Managed Services at Cloud Rede, shares his insights on SQL Server 2025. At Cloud Rede we are continuously exploring ways to optimise SQL Server performance and deliver the best results for our SQL Server clients.
New variant in SQL Server 2025
A seemingly small, but very welcome, addition to SQL Server 2025 is the introduction of a new variant of Developer edition – Standard Developer – which is based on the Standard edition feature set. This is paired with the newly named Enterprise Developer edition, which is equivalent to the Developer edition that has previously been available and has always had the same capabilities as the Enterprise edition.
The Developer edition is incredibly useful, as it provides a free way to run a full version of SQL Server, complete with the entire set of features, in development and test environments. Where this can create an issue that may not be obvious is when your production workload is running on Standard edition, but you are writing queries and performance testing using Developer edition, which has all the capabilities of Enterprise edition.
Optimising query and system performance
I spend a lot of my time helping clients optimise query and system performance. However, there is always a trap where the way queries are optimised and executed by the database engine varies between editions. The most advanced functionality is available only in the Enterprise and Developer editions, but not in the Standard edition.
These are some key scalability and database engine benefits that you don’t have available in Standard edition:
- Increased buffer memory above 128GB
- Using more than 4 sockets/24 cores
- Read-ahead mechanism
- Advanced scan feature (aka merry-go-round scanning)
- Batch mode features (adaptive joins, memory grant feedback)
- Automatic use of indexed views
When to use Standard Developer edition
When tuning queries in Developer edition, you may get a false sense of progress because you are unknowingly using optimisations that are exclusive to Enterprise edition, which you won’t discover until your new code reaches a production server running Standard edition. Now, however, if your production servers are running Standard edition, you should ensure that you use Standard Developer edition for non-production environments to develop and test, as this will provide the most realistic experience and ensure that the way queries run will be the same once they reach production.
Where to specifiy Standard Developer edition
(This is based on what is available in Release Candidate 1 (RC1). Until the product is generally available (GA), there is a chance this can change.)
Want to stay ahead of the curve with your SQL Server strategy?
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