Arshad Ali

Introduction Column Store Index, which improves performance of data warehouse queries several folds, was first introduced in SQL Server 2012. Though it had several limitations, now SQL Server 2014 enhances the columnstore index and overcomes several of the earlier limitations. In this article, I am going to discuss how you can get started using the […]

Introduction Column Store Index, which improves performance of data warehouse queries several folds, was first introduced in SQL Server 2012. Though it had several limitations, now SQL Server 2014 enhances the columnstore index and overcomes several of those earlier limitations. In this article series I am going to talk about how you can get started […]

Introduction Column Store Index, which improves performance of data warehouse queries several folds, was first introduced in SQL Server 2012. Unlike regular indexes or heaps, which store data in B-Tree structure (in row-wise fashion), the column store index stores data in columnar fashion and uses compression aggressively to reduce the disk I/O needed to serve […]

Introduction As developers, we have always wanted to have a single Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for not only writing application code but to also to write database code in a single place without switching the environments. SQL Server Data Tool (SSDT) is a new feature in SQL Server 2012 that provides this capability primarily intended […]

Introduction As developers, we have always wanted to have a single Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for not only writing application code but to also to write database code in a single place without switching the environments. SQL Server Data Tool (SSDT) is a new feature in SQL Server 2012 that provides this capability primarily intended […]

Introduction In my last article I talked about Slowly Changing Dimension (SCD) Transformation, which is available out of box in the SSIS toolkit and can be used easily and configured quickly for managing smaller slowly changing dimension. The Slowly Changing Dimension Transformation is good if you want to get started easily and quickly but it […]

Introduction As a data warehouse expert or as an ETL developer you will often come across scenarios in which you need to maintain and manage slowly changing dimensions. There are multiple ways to implement that in SQL Server and the easiest of those is using Slowly Changing Dimension Transformation in the data flow task of […]

Introduction Earlier articles of this series discussed what partitioning in SQL Server is; the different kinds of partitioning options, why and when we should go for partitioning and the benefits a partitioned table/index provides. Then I talked about different partitioning concepts like partition function, partition scheme, guidelines on choosing a partitioning column and creating a […]

Introduction In my earlier articles of the series, I discussed what partitioning in SQL Server is; the different kinds of partitioning options that we have, why and when we should go for partitioning and what benefits partition table/index provides. Then I talked about different partitioning concepts, such as partition function, partition scheme, guideline on choosing […]

Introduction In my earlier articles of the series, I talked about what partitioning is in SQL Server; the different kinds of partitioning options, why and when we should go for partitioning and the benefits partition table/index provides. Then I talked about the different partitioning concepts like partition function, partition scheme, choosing partitioning columns and creating […]

Introduction When a table grows large or huge in size it becomes really difficult to load new data, remove old data, maintain indexes and queries involving this table, and runs extremely slow. In this situation, we can partition the table, which essentially breaks the table and its indexes into logically smaller chunks called partitions. Further, […]

Introduction With every new release of SQL Server, partitioning has reached new heights of improvement. For example, though we could create partitioned views for better manageability and scalability since SQL Server 7.0, SQL Server 2005 started with native support for Table Partitioning (more on this later in this article). SQL Server 2008 introduced partition table […]