Microsoft® SQL Server 2012 Unleashed

Table Design Guidelines

Table designs—Given the massively increased CPU, memory, and disk I/O speeds that now exist, you should use a general guideline to create as “normalized” a table design as is humanly possible. No longer is it necessary to massively denormalize for performance. Most normalized table designs are easily supported by SQL Server. Normalized table designs ensure that data has high integrity and low overall redundant data maintenance. See Dr. E.F. Codd’s original work on relational database design (The Relational Model for Database Management: Version 2, Addison Wesley, 1990). Denormalize for performance as a last resort!

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