The Essential Guide to Table Partitioning and Data Lifecycle Management

Database professionals today often find themselves having to work with tables that are many GBs in size, if not a TB or more. Managing databases and tables such as these requires variations to the way that most might manage a database. To compensate for the increased size of tables, Microsoft has introduced native table partitioning capabilities in SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition, which allow DBAs to work with partitions, or pieces of tables, that are much easier to manage than large monolithic tables. This Essential Guide explains in detail the benefits of the table partitioning features available in SQL Server 2005 and gives IT professionals solid methods to improve maintenance and query performance through the use of these features.