Your report queries are too slow. Will columnstore indexes help?

You’ve tried throwing some hardware at it: your production SQL Server has 12 CPU cores or more, 128GB RAM, and SQL Server 2016 or newer. It’s still not enough to handle your growing data. It’s already up over 250GB, and they’re not letting you purge old data.

In one day, you’ll learn:

• How columnstore data is stored, and how that impacts your architecture choices
• How to do a hands-on self-assessment of your workloads, data, and server to figure out whether columnstore indexes make sense for you
• How to do a proof-of-concept implementation with initial creation and measuring how your queries are impacted

As this is a Fundamentals class, I need to be clear about what’s out of scope, too. We won’t be covering how to tune loads, tune query plans, design rowstore indexes atop columnstore ones, tune ongoing maintenance, feature cross-compatibility, compatibility levels, or behaviors of different SQL Server versions or editions.

Prerequisites – you need to be already thoroughly familiar with my free 90-minute class, How to Think Like the SQL Server Engine, and my 1-day Fundamentals of Index Tuning class. After you enroll, do the full prerequisites including chat setup.

Each student needs to bring their own SQL Server. You’re highly encouraged to follow along with the labs. Throughout the class, you’ll have homework where you need to complete a hands-on lab using SQL Server 2017 or 2019 and the Stack Overflow database. Read the instructions on how to set up your own lab SQL Server to follow along – a lab server is not included unless you buy my Live Class Season Pass PLUS Lab VM.

This is a live online class – but you have two buying choices:

• Instant Replay Recordings Only – you can start streaming the Instant Replay recordings as soon as the first live class finishes. You can watch for a year straight.
• Live Class + Instant Replay – not only do you get instant access to the most recent recordings, but you can also attend all of the live deliveries of this class for 12 months after you buy your ticket. Read the live class logistics page. Here are the upcoming dates scheduled so far:
  • October 20, 2020 online 9:00-5:00 Eastern (click to see in your own time zone) – iCal
  • November 17, 2020 online 9:00-5:00 Eastern (click to see in your own time zone) – iCal
  • February 5, 2021 online 9:00-5:00 Eastern (click to see in your own time zone) – iCal
  • May 10, 2021 online 9:00-5:00 Eastern (click to see in your own time zone) – iCal

Register now – and of course, Live Class Season Pass holders are welcome to drop in at any time, no registration required. Your pass gets you into any live online class I do during your subscription. See you in class!