For example, let's look at a Sparse Column situation. Say you have 400 million records in a table with a significant number of null values, and you've defined a Sparse Column, so you're not taking up space for all of those nulls. Well, if you don't want to take up storage space with null values, then you surely don't want to take up index space with them either. Here you would define a filtered index on that sparse column where the value is not null so that only rows with actual data in them are indexed.

Not only can you save a lot of index space with filtered indexes, but the queries that use those indexes will be faster because they're running against a subset of the entire data set. You also shrink the maintenance window and re-index space for the index.

Another good use of filtered indexes might be if you have, say, ten years of data in a table but nobody ever queries further than two years back. You could create a filtered index for just those two years and get the same benefits as in the first scenario.

SQL Server Reporting Services

SSRS (SQL Server Reporting Services) has received a major overhaul. For starters, it no longer relies on IIS for its report server capabilities. This is a huge leap forward for SSRS shops because as I've found many times, it can be difficult to get approval for Windows changes, such as installing IIS. Often, these shops don't like to make major changes to a Windows install, and adding a component such as IIS, which is perceived to be difficult to secure, makes them doubly hesitant; not requiring IIS is a good thing.