SQL Server 2008 R2 November CTP - Released

SQL Server 2008 R2 November CTP: Installation Step by Step

Download R2 bits here

Summarizing SQL 2008 Features

• TDE (Transparent Data Encryption) - Encryption of data on the disk while it remains transparent to the application requesting the data.
• Auditing - Server and Database Audits
• Backup Compression
• Performance Data Collection (Disk Usage, Query Stats, Server Activity)
• Resource Governor - Limit Usage of CPU, Memory
• CDC - Change Data Tracking
• TVP - Ability to declare table types and pass as variables
• Data Compression - Row Compression, Page Compression
• FileStream - Ability to store objects in the file system but still be managed by SQL Server
• Sparse Columns - Sparse columns reduce the amount of storage for null values  at the sacrifice of more overhead to retrieve non-null values. Best practice is to use when column contains 20 – 40 percent null values.
• New Index Types - Filtered Index, Spatial Index, XML Index
• Merge Statement

Summarizing SQL 2008 R2 Features