Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Bible

Summary

This chapter presented the concept of the Information Architecture Principle, unpacked the six database objectives, and then discussed the Smart Database Design, showing the dependencies between the layers and how each layer enables the next layer.

In a chapter packed with ideas, the following are key take-aways:

• The database architect position should be equally involved in the enterprise-level design and the project-level designs.
• You can measure any database design or implementation using six database objectives: usability, extensibility, data integrity, performance, availability, and security. These objectives don't need to compete — you can design an elegant database that meets all six objectives.
• Early investment in database design is worth it; it can save development and maintenance cost later.
• Extensibility is the most expensive database objective to correct after the fact. A database incapable of absorbing organizational changes and new requirements elegantly will evolve into an unmaintainable mess. Smart Database Design is the premise that an elegant physical schema makes the data intuitively obvious and enables writing great set-based queries that respond well to indexing. This in turn creates short, tight transactions, which improves concurrency and scalability while reducing the aggregate workload of the database. This flow from layer to layer becomes a methodology for designing and optimizing databases.
• Reducing the aggregate workload of the database has a ...