Index maintenance has long been one of the core tasks of every database administrator working with Microsoft SQL Server.

We rely on scripts scheduled in jobs, running resource-intensive operations during planned maintenance windows to rebuild or reorganize indexes. Then, we need constant monitoring, tuning, and iteration.

But what if that approach is changing?

Introducing Automatic Index Compaction, a new SQL Server feature designed to continuously improve the page density of your indexes!

I see your eyebrow raised! I had a lot of questions too:
- Does it eliminate the need for REBUILD and/or REORGANIZE the indexes?
- Is it suitable for all workloads?
- Does it respect FILL FACTOR?
- What are the trade-offs in terms of performance, logging, and resource usage?

Is this the end of long-running index maintenance jobs?

Join me in this session and let's dive into how Automatic Index Compaction actually works, what problems it solves (and what it doesn’t), and how it can change the way we think about index maintenance.

By the end of the session, you will understand how it works and whether you should put it in place in your environments.

Index maintenance has long been a core task for DBAs working with Microsoft SQL Server, relying on resource-intensive jobs to rebuild or reorganize indexes during maintenance windows.

With the introduction of Automatic Index Compaction, SQL Server now offers a way to continuously improve page density without heavy scheduled operations.

In this session, we’ll explore how it works, its trade-offs, and when it can (and cannot) replace traditional index maintenance.