At Adobe MAX the ColdFusion team showed off some of the planned features in the next release code-named "Zeus". Highlights include:

• More security functions (using ESAPI)
• Closures
• REST built into components (classes). From the example shown specify a couple arguments to a function and it becomes a REST service.
• Websockets
• HTML 5 Charting (including a demo showing updating a chart via websockets — in the Keeping Current video below)
• Tomcat as default engine

After viewing both videos this is not the full list for ColdFusion Zeus but a nice primer of what is to come (and includes standard disclaimers that things may change).

The Videos

Keeping Current with ColdFusion — Provides a quick overview of ColdFusion 8 & 9 but mostly covers what is in Zeus.

What's Next in ColdFusion — Focused solely on ColdFusion Zeus and covers a lot of the new features