Improve the performance of relational databases with indexes designed for today's hardware

Over the last few years, hardware and software have advanced beyond all recognition, so it's hardly surprising that relational database performance now receives much less attention. Unfortunately, the reality is that the improved hardware hasn't kept pace with the ever-increasing quantity of data processed today. Although disk packing densities have increased enormously, making storage costs extremely low and sequential read very fast, random reads are still painfully slow. Many of the old design recommendations are therefore no longer valid-the optimal point of indexing has come a long way. Consequently many of the old problems haven't actually gone away-they have simply changed their appearance.

This book provides an easy but effective approach to the design of indexes and tables. Using lots of examples and case studies, the authors describe how the DB2, Oracle, and SQL Server optimizers determine how to access data, and how CPU and response times for the resulting access paths can be quickly estimated. This enables comparisons to be made of the various designs, and helps you choose available choices for the most appropriate design.

This book is intended for anyone who wants to understand the issues of SQL performance or how to design tables and indexes effectively. With this title, readers with many years of experience of relational systems will be able to better grasp the implications that have been brought into play by the introduction of new hardware.

An Instructor's Manual presenting detailed solutions to all the problems in the book is available online from the Wiley editorial department.

An Instructor Support FTP site is also available.

Tapio Lahdenmaki，数据库性能顾问，教授通用索引设计课程。他在IBM公司工作了三十多年，是公司全球课程中有关DB2 (for z/OS)性能相关课程的主要作者。Michael Leach，关系型数据库顾问，已从IBM公司退休，他拥有二十年的应用系统及数据库课程的教授经验。两位作者的文章均被翻译成了多国语言广为传播。他们有关索引设计的方法被成功应用于许多核心系统。