High availability SQL Server without Active Directory I'm fairly new to SQL Server. I'm looking to achieve a highly available SQL Server setup where if the primary database fails, the backup database takes over. What would you guys recommend?

I'm familiar with MySQL replication, however in the case of SQL Server it doesn't seem straight forward to switch the publisher role to a subscriber.

Ideally not a high availability cluster because I'd like to avoid Active Directory. I've had a brief search on google, however I'm asking on here to get the opinion of experienced pros.

Thanks in advance.
SIOS makes an excellent product that you can use without every supported version of SQL Server and is also SANless. It does block by block transfers and David Klee is a big enough fan that he even does sessions for them, and doesn't get remuneration for it. He just loves the product that much.

I'm not sure if it meets all of your needs but it's definitely worth checking out.

http://us.sios.com/