The 64-bit installation did not include GUI tools like Enterprise Manager or Query Analyzer. Microsoft required users to manage the server remotely from a 32-bit machine.
represented a critical milestone in the transition of enterprise database management from 32-bit constraints to high-performance 64-bit computing. While the 32-bit version was the industry standard for general-purpose applications, the 64-bit release was specifically engineered to harness the architecture of Intel Itanium
The stands as a monument to a transitional era—when 64-bit computing was exotic, Itanium threatened to dethrone x86, and Microsoft proved it could build a database that scaled to terabytes. For the vast majority of professionals, it is a name best left in documentation archives and virtualization museums.
Many Fortune 500 companies ran custom ERP or CRM systems on SQL Server 2000 Enterprise (64-bit) on Itanium clusters. Before migrating to SQL Server 2019/2022 (or Azure SQL), developers need an exact behavioral replica. The Developer Edition (free of production license cost) lets them:
Run the 32-bit Developer Edition on Windows Server 2019 (or even Windows 11) via WOW64. You lose the massive memory benefits, but you gain behavioral compatibility for T-SQL, stored procedures, and DTS.
: Requires 64-bit versions of the Windows Server 2003 family.