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:
Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Developer Edition (64-bit) was a specialized release designed specifically for the architecture. Released around May 2003 , it provided developers with the full feature set of the Enterprise Edition for use in non-production environments. Key Features and Capabilities ms sql server 2000 developer edition 64 bit