When you run Windows Server 2008 with your application in 32 bits against SQL Server 2012 in emulation mode, did you have to install any SQL Server libraries in the Bin directory and reference them in your project? Because, I also have the same problem hitting SQL Server 2008 and that used to work as is in all other environments. I am starting to think that maybe all other environments had SQL Server installed locally and that might explain why some libraries were already available to make it all work. The question is to know if there is no SQL Server installed locally, should we be able to benefit from spatial data type as is within having to install SQL Server libraries in the Bin directory and reference them in our project?