Reworking Indexes for an Evolving Application

Courtney Woolum

Performance issues in the database accumulate over time: poor architecture, growing data, and changing usage. In these situations, it’s important to identify the most problematic issues rather than the most visible.

In this session, we’ll discuss a systematic approach to triaging performance issues through functional index analysis. Learn the importance of understanding table relationships and leveraging this knowledge to prioritize easy wins with significant gains. After all, a missing foreign key index, a suboptimal clustered index, or even a too-short non-clustered index can each have a substantial impact on performance.

I’ll share my strategy for analyzing key metrics and determining next steps to optimize design within the context of the application instead of simply by the book.

I’ll also demonstrate how to translate these insights into action by refactoring existing indexes, adding new ones, and streamlining overall performance. By the end of this session, you’ll have a strategy for assessing the health of your database design and making methodical improvements, even when the only data point they give you is “slow”.