On Day 4 we covered a lot of index internals and statistics. I was in particular able to understand filtered indexes and statistics in a lot of detail, seemed like features that would be of great benefit to DBAs who knew their data and queries intimately well and need to fine tune a lot. I felt particularly intrigued by the connection between updating statistics and rebuilding indexes - apparently updating statistics before an index rebuild increases chances of better parellelism use during rebuild. I made a mental note to test this process soon as possible.The problems and difficulties/advantages to the existing statistic model was also explained at great length. Towards the end of the day many people including me looked visibly tired - the effect of so much input in a short time. Still felt very motivated to learn more on fragmentation, guids and statistics the next day.

The last day started with Paul explaining fragmentation and anatomy of page splits with great detail. Strategies of optimising different types of queries and how indexes are used for different query models were explained thoroughly, i regard this as one of the most important takeaways of the program. In the afternoon Kimberly explained the fragmentation issue with GUIDs. As someone who deals with a hugely fragmented GUID database i could not get enough of this (although the problem was more or less 'fixed' using SSD drives!!).

Also end of this day Kimberly and Paul joined us for dinner/drinks at the bar/restaurant. We were able to ask several questions on the MCM program and in general and also get to know other participants better. I made a mental note to take better advantage of the socialising opportunities going forward. Although it was the end of a long week lots of people had questions and problems, which we shared and regardless of what the future may bring it was comforting to know that several people are in the same boat. I want to thank my employer, Kindred Healthcare, for allowing me to attend such a great program. I have made more notes and blogging topics than ever before and hope to take full advantage of this. Like anything else assimulating the learning is a long and persistent process one hopes to keep ahead with. Hoping to get started on that shortly!!