@Hairy, in my experience, adding a SQL spatial column type has allowed me to move a lot of my spatial operations (distance, buffer) into stored procedures which is really handy.

@Michael, ArcGIS toolbox has a "Copy Features" tool to push data into a sde geodatabase, and if you specify a Configuration Keyword of "Geometry" or "Geography" a sql spatial column should be generated.

In my experience, adding a SQL spatial column type has allowed me to move a lot of my spatial operations (distance, buffer) into stored procedures which is really handy.

ArcGIS toolbox has a "Copy Features" tool to push data into a sde geodatabase, and if you specify a Configuration Keyword of "Geometry" or "Geography" a sql spatial column should be generated.