What options exist for copying data between servers on a regular basis?
I'd consider backup/restore of a mix of full and differential backups from prod to dev.
Then synch between this restored copy to your actual dev databases

SQL Server 2008 R2+ supports backup compression in Standard Edition (In SQL Server 2008 it was Enterprise Edition only) which makes this easier.

Reasons:


You test your backup integrity and restore capability
You can reset your dev database easily if some code monkey bollixes it
You can compare "before" and "after" DDL, performance etc
You can snapshot the restored database as needed to roll this back if you make changes


I've used this before and will use it again for these reasons

I suggested this in my answer to The smallest backup possible ... with SQL Server