Choosing an edition of Analysis Services

Before we start developing with Analysis Services, we need a clear idea of which edition of Analysis Services we're going to be developing for. There are three choices: Standard Edition, which is the cheapest but is missing some features; and BI Edition and Enterprise Edition, which are more expensive, but feature-complete. The only difference between BI Edition and Enterprise Edition, as far as Analysis Services Multidimensional goes, is that BI Edition is licensed on a server and Client Access License (CAL) model, whereas Enterprise Edition is licensed on a per-core model. The licensing cost is likely to be the major factor in the decision about which edition to choose. If money is no object, then you should use Enterprise Edition or BI Edition.

If money is an issue, then you'll just have to live with the limitations of Standard Edition. Of course, if we install Analysis Services on a server that already has SQL Server installed, then there are no...