Microsoft SQL Server 2008 has hundreds of new and improved features, many of which are specifically designed for large scale independent software vendor (ISV) applications, which need to leverage the power of the underlying database while keeping their code database agnostic. This article presents details of the top 10 features that we believe are most applicable to such applications based on our work with strategic ISV partners. Along with the description of each feature, the main pain-points the feature helps resolve and some of the important limitations that need to be considered are also presented.