Many DBAs take routine database maintenance for granted. What they don’t understand is that the cumulative effect of poor database maintenance can significantly hurt performance. In this session, you will learn the key things all DBAs need to know in order to maintain their databases at peak performance.

What does it mean that my index is fragmented? Why do I get a warning about index record sizes? How should I store images in SQL Server? Knowing how SQL Server stores data and what options there are to control this can help you to build more efficient applications. In this session we will look at how table and index data is stored on disk. We will look at the various data types available, from bits to filestreams, how indexes can be used to optimize read or write performance, and how row and page compression work.

Graphical Execution Plans in SSMS is not only the best way to know what is happenning under the hood of SQL engine but also it is the most accessible one.