Jon Morisi loves him some replication:
Seriously though, replication has been around since the beginning and it’s not going anywhere. I can’t think of any other feature more prolific than replication. Name another SQL Server HA/DR technology that is as extensible as replication. Replication has gotten a bad rap over the years mostly on anecdotal comments that it “breaks all the time” or “it takes too much time to manage”. I’ve worked in many environments and have setup dozens and dozens of instances of log shipping, mirroring, clusters, availability groups, and replication. From my anecdotal experience, I can tell you I’ve had more trouble with availability groups than I have with replication. If you have a good DBA that understands replication, uses it correctly, and is provided the correct tools (read $ for hardware/infrastructure) replication works just fine. I have setup replication in a global environment in which multiple databases, publications, subscriptions, and agents ran around the clock and without issue.
Replication is very powerful, I agree…but it still breaks. A lot. I’m grateful for its existence and also for the fact that I’m not the one maintaining it…