We have two different environments that are replicas of each other – DEV/STG and PROD. We recently upgraded both environments to SQL Server 2016 using the same upgrade process (we're on AWS, so it was as simple as spinning up a new instance), but are unable to find any SQL Always Encrypted options, configurations, menus, or wizards in our DEV/STG environment (single server, two instances). I checked our PROD server and there they are, Always Encrypted Key, Encrypt Columns, etc.
Is there a configuration or module I need to install in our DEV/STG environment to allow it to utilize the Always Encrypted functionality?
Best Answer
I see this question is a few months old, but I wanted to tell you about a great update from Microsfot if you've missed the news.
On November 16, Microsoft announced the release of SQL Server 2016 SP1. Along with the normal things found in Service Pack releases, they also included CREATE OR REPLACE functionality. And, really important for your question, they've made quite a lot of the features that you can develop for available in editions other than Enterprise.
Most critical for you here is the availability of the Always Encrypted feature in SQL Server 2016 Standard and even Express starting in SP1 of SQL Server 2016.
You can read about that here on Microsoft's blog post.