Performance – support for non-clustered column store indexes

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Users, automatically Oct 1, 2021 Oct 1, 2021

Business value

Using a non-clustered column store index (NCCI) instead of SIFT indexes can have multiple performance benefits, such as reduced locking due to maintenance of SIFT indexes (SQL indexed views), faster posting, and reduced storage cost (NCCIs are highly compressed).

Feature details

AL developers can now create NCCIs instead of SIFT indexes. Just use the new keyword Columnstore in the table definition.

A migration path from tables with SIFT indexes to NCCIs could be:

  • Add all SIFT fields to the NCCI.
  • Remove the SIFT index.
  • If the SIFT indexes are really needed, add them again using a per-tenant extension.

Using NCCIs can give you better performance, especially in situations where developers forget to add one or more SIFT indexes.

See also

ColumnStoreIndex Property (docs)