Developers have reason to be excited about the third preview release of SQL Server 2011, code-named Denali. In this release, Microsoft has included the Juneau toolset, along with a multitude of features, including improved query performance, the FileTable table type, and tabular modelling.
Another item that developers will be eager to hear–Microsoft has included an interactive visualization and reporting client that they are calling Project Crescent. Project Crescent was created using Silverlight–not HTML5. This comes as Microsoft has supposedly moved its focus away from Silverlight, and on to HTML5 and related technologies.