Steve Jones - SSC Editor (5/7/2013)
It very much depends on your business, but I can give you a few things I've seen people use.1. AlwaysOn Availability Groups - Get some HA and offload reporting in a scale out way to other servers. Not cheap, but it can work.
2. Window functions - Can dramatically speed up some queries, but also reduce development time if you use these.
From my business perspective:
1. Upgraded SSIS. Easier development and deployment. Much more mature product now.
2. Power View. Definately. One of the more "sexy" things you can show management for persuading them to buy SQL Server 2012.
3. Columnstore indexes. Huge performance improvements in data warehouse scenarios.
Need an answer? No, you need a question
My blog at https://sqlkover.com.
MCSE Business Intelligence - Microsoft Data Platform MVP