Sql-server – SQL Server 2008r2 replication from multiple sources

I would just backup/restore. This accomplishes the same thing, validates your recovery story, and will easily handle schema/object changes as well - without really putting any undue strain on the existing database (you're already backing it up, right?). If it were on a different server (or if you ever split them up), I might suggest log shipping as opposed to mirroring or replication, that way you can fiddle with how long between log backups, how long to delay restores, what kind of maintenance window to use, etc. Of course even on a different server a very simple backup/restore will work fine.

I'll throw an answer. The physical overhead of a new replication should not be too big, on an existing replicator. The more difficult part of a replication is the configuration and the monitoring.

You said that right now you have replication only to the reporting server, and you actually "...like to have replicated to our various production databases around the world", so you'll have subscribers all over the world for this new database.

This means you'll have to establish many physical connection between the home server and those new ones (firewall, permissions, SQL Server installation ..etc). You'll have new replications to monitor, new jobs to check, new logs to verify...etc.

In the case of a small database I'd go with a simpler case of copying it's data: just copy the backup over the wire and restore in the new places, use log shipping, anything that would not require cumbersome monitoring and configuration.