> Key problems include connection issues with SQL Server,
What sort? If it's intermediate connection problems .NET 4.5.1 added Connection Resiliency to ADO.NET [1]. If you're using a recent enough version of Entity Framework it goes even further [2].
[1] http://dpaoliello.wordpress.com/2014/03/30/connection-resili...
[2] http://thedatafarm.com/data-access/ef6-connection-resiliency...