SQL Server 2012 is the latest released commercial version; however, SQL Server 2014 Community Technology Preview 2 (CTP2) was also available at the time of writing this book. We shall base our discussion and examples on SQL Server 2012, but we'll provide a brief overview of the new capabilities available in SQL Server 2014 at the end of the chapter.
Each time Microsoft comes up with a new version of SQL Server, there are several editions of it with different capabilities and often confusing licensing models. SQL Server 2012 is definitely not an exception. There are three principal editions (Enterprise, Business Intelligence, and Standard), one specialized web edition, and two breadth editions (Developer and Express). All the editions come in 64-bit and 32-bit flavors.
The Developer edition of SQL Server traditionally has all the functionalities of the Enterprise edition but is licensed for development and testing only.