Microsoft® SQL Server 2012 Unleashed

Columnstore Indexes

SQL Server 2012 introduces a new query acceleration feature based on a new type of index called a columnstore index. Columnstore indexes, combined with enhanced query processing features, can improve query performance for data warehouse applications significantly. Columnstore indexes can eliminate the need to rely on other data warehousing strategies such as prebuilt aggregates, summary tables, and indexed views.

Unlike typical row storage, which stores multiple rows per page, as you’ve seen in the previous sections of this chapter, a columnstore index stores the values for a single column in a separate set of disk pages. The advantage of columnar storage is the ability to read the values of a specific column of a table without ...