SQL Server Data Tools
Depending on the scope of your development role, you may find that you use more than one version of Visual Studio: Visual Studio 2010 for creating and managing your database projects and Visual Studio 2008, or Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS) for your BI projects (SSIS, SSAS and SSRS). In the past, the SQL Server development toolset has lagged behind, remaining on an older version of Microsoft's development environment, but it has finally caught up.
SQL Server 2012 says goodbye to BIDS and introduces us to SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT). Based on the Visual Studio 2010 shell, SSDT thankfully brings everything under the same roof. If you already use Visual Studio 2010 for software or web applications, then you are in the same familiar environment.
Just like BIDS, SSDT is a free tool available to all SQL Server developers as part of the standard SQL Server installation options, so you don't need to have Visual Studio 2010 already installed. But if you do,...