SQLBits 2014

The Day After Tomorrow; Why You Need to Baseline

Ensuring top performance is never easy. To maintain performance you need to make sure you’re monitoring the right things. How do you know if the figures you’re seeing are good or bad? Baseline comparisons can help.

Ensuring peak SQL Server performance isn’t always easy and requires a lot of work on the part of the DBA. To maintain the best-possible performance, you need to make sure you’re monitoring the right things. But how do you know if the figures you’re seeing are good or bad? Baseline comparisons can help.

In this session I will show you how to get the most from them, explaining what a baseline is, why and when you need to take one, and how you can create one. You’ll also learn about a number of native Windows and SQL Server tools that will allow you to do just that. Don’t wait for a disaster to fully realize the importance of baselining.

Richard Douglas's other proposed sessions for 2026

Couchbase for the SQL DBA - 2026

Resource Governor: Reducing Dastardly Behaviour in SQL Server 2025 - 2026

TempDB: The Bottleneck You Can’t See in the Execution Plan - 2026

Richard Douglas's previous sessions

Improving SQL Server Performance with Indexing

Indexing presents daunting challenges for even the most seasoned professionals, it offers countless options to choose from. With a little help you’ll see how to simplify indexing in your environment & improve the overall performance of your apps

Investigate TempDB like Sherlock Holmes

Learn how to investigate the mysterious case of SQL Server performance problems in TempDB.

Alerting; Beyond the Basics

We'll look at events that you should be monitoring, how you can use various services & IoT enabled devices to alert you in ways that were never possible. You'll leave with a new outlook of how teams can be notified to fix problems faster than ever.

The Big Backup Theory

In this session, you'll gain invaluable guidance for optimizing your backup strategies. Using trace flags the session will cover how SQL Server manages its own backup options and how you can tune them to meet your SLAs.

Wait watchers-Gain Performance Increases Fast!

In this session you'll learn all about SQL Server wait statistics. These are statistics the database engine stores about the resources it is waiting on. Armed with this information you as a SQL Server professional can make better informed decisions.

The Day After Tomorrow; Why You Need to Baseline