In case you missed it, Microsoft announced the first public CTP of Denali aka the next version of SQL Server. The first two keynotes at the PASS Summit Microsoft reveiled some of the new features. For those who downloaded CTP1 on the spot, installed it and try to play with the just reveiled features you might be dissapointed. Most features shown aren’t in the CTP. Columnar indexes for example, or HADR. True, HADR is available but only one secondary can be added.
On the other hand there are features that aren’t mentioned or briefly that might have a huge impact on your bussines. One of the features is Contained Databases where each database live independent from the instance. I second the comment from @MarkGStacey.
http://twitter.com/#!/MarkGStacey/status/2349979419017216
Another great feature is custom server roles. In previous version you could create a database role, add specific permissions, or deny specific permissions, to the role and map database users to it. At the instance level you needed to do this directly at the login. Simply because you cannot create a custom server role. With Denali you can. Read more about it in this post from Mike Walsh.
I believe two strong features and they are in this CTP. It is cool to see new features, but it is way cooler to play with them. Now let’s hope Microsoft will unleash some of the announced features to the public.