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This book is a deep dive into perhaps the single-most important facet of good performance: indexes, and how to best use them. The book begins in the shallow waters with explanations of the types of indexes and how they are stored in databases. Moving deeper into the topic, and further into the book, you will look at the statistics that are accumulated both by indexes and on indexes. You´ll better understand what indexes are doing in the database and what can be done to mitigate and improve their effect on performance. The final destination is a guided tour through a number of real life scenarios showing approaches you can take to investigate, mitigate, and improve the performance of your database.

Defines the types of indexes and their implementation options
Provides use cases and common patterns in applying indexing
Describes and explain the index metadata and statistics
Provides a framework of strategies and approaches for indexing databases

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Introduction

1. Index Fundamentals

2. Index Storage Fundamentals

3. Index Metadata and Statistics

4. XML Indexes

5. Spatial Indexes

6. Full-text Indexes and Semantic Search

7. Indexing Memory-Optimized Tables

8. Index Myths and Best Practices

9. Index Maintenance

10. Indexing Tools

11. Indexing Strategies

12. Query Strategies

13. Monitoring Your Indexes

14. Index Analysis

15. Indexing Methodology

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Jason Strate is a database architect and administrator with more than 15 years of experience. He has been a recipient of Microsoft´s "Most Valuable Professional" designation for SQL Server since July 2009. His experience includes design and implementation of both OLTP and OLAP solutions, as well as assessment and implementation of SQL Server environments for best practices, performance, and high availability solutions. Jason is a SQL Server MCITP and participated in the development of Microsoft Certification exams for SQL Server 2008.Jason is actively involved with his local PASS chapter (SQL Server User Group) and serves as its director of program development. Jason worked with the board to organize the PASSMN SQL Summit 2009 for the local community. Jason enjoys helping others in the SQL Server community and does this by presenting at technical conferences and user group meetings. Most recently, Jason has presented at the SSWUG Virtual Conferences, TechFuse, numerous SQL Saturdays, and at PASSMN user group meetings.Jason is a contributing author for the Microsoft whitepaper Empowering Enterprise Solutions with SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition. Jason is an active blogger with a focus on SQL Server and related technologies.

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