Summary

A good database design is the best place to start to ensure a smoothly running system. You can take steps to ensure a solid design. If you inherit a database with an inadequate design, you can take steps to ensure good performance. The primary goals of a database designer should be to index the database effectively and keep table row sizes as narrow as possible. A good database design goes a long way toward ensuring excellent performance.

Using the information you learned in this chapter about designing for performance, the next chapter, "Configuring, Tuning, and Optimizing SQL Server Options," will show you how to take your new database design concepts into production. You will learn how to configure a server for the best performance under different circumstances, and identify and optimize the server when performance is inadequate.