Last week the internet went crazy with the news of super cool new stuff for techies to play with.

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We had the Apple Fanboys getting all excited over the iPad 3 launch, which I’m told has resulted in an availability shortage of the product because it’s just soooo popular. Good to see the Apple Hype machine up to the same old tricks. We don’t care about any of that here though do we folks? No sir, we want to what’s hot with SQL Server 2012!

Microsoft released SQL 2012 to the world via their Virtual Launch Event last week. There was so much interest in the event that it actually brought the website down. There’s still time for you to catch the keynote, enjoy all the other sessions from the event and enter various competitions so be sure to take a look.

With so many folks excited about SQL2012 I asked the community on Twitter:

What SQL2012 feature are you excited about the most?

March 9, 2012 3:48 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@JohnSansom

John Sansom

Here’s what some of you had to say:

@JohnSansom "I think [execution_path] is the best new feature ... in Denali" http://t.co/YsJZfGOL (Yes, really.)

March 9, 2012 3:54 pm via webReplyRetweetFavorite

@jamiet

Jamie Thomson

@JohnSansom SSIS Improvements and spatial improvements #SQL2012 #ReallyGeneralLikes

March 9, 2012 3:49 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@onpnt

Ted Krueger

@JohnSansom AlwaysOn is pretty darned sexy. #sqlserver #sql2012

March 9, 2012 3:49 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@GFritchey

Grant Fritchey

@JohnSansom And I'm very excited about the Extended Events GUI #sqlserver #sql2012

March 9, 2012 3:50 pm via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite

@GFritchey

Grant Fritchey

What I’m Excited About in SQL 2012

It’s great to see excitement for such a variety of features. It just goes to show the diversity of both the product and the professionals that use it.

As expected there’s a lot of excitement surrounding AlwaysOn technology in SQL 2012 and it’s something that I’m particularly interested in as well. I think it could potentially serve  as a replacement for some of the more common SQL Server Replication design patterns and I’m going to be doing some proof of concept work in the near future.

I’m also excited about the improvements to working with XEvents in SQL Server. This powerful tool has been perhaps a little tricky to get to grips with at first and it’s without a doubt worth the investment of your time to learn, especially when you consider that SQL Server Profiler will eventually be going away in a future version of the product. A great way to learn about working with XEvents is by visiting the blog of Jonathan Kehayias (Blog|Twitter). The man has a wealth of brilliant content for you to benefit from.

What SQL 2012 feature are you excited about? Let me know in the comments.