Reply by Colin Thompson from TechBrain on Friday, 24 February, 2012 - 11:47

Hi Chris, Microsoft provide a great comparrison tool at http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/en/us/product-info/compare.aspx. My advice would be to check with the software vendor about suitability but i would expect that STD edition 2008 would suit if you are already using STD edition 2005. Usually you can assume that your database would be backwards compatible in terms of most functionality. Ultimately though, if the vendor recommends SQL 2008 STD then you should be fine. Any further questions, just post back here. Cheers