SQL Server has one simple rule: Anything you do that makes your job easier makes SQL Server’s job harder.

I’m Erik Darling, and I’ve learned that lesson the hard way through many years of SQL Server performance tuning, where seemingly convenient choices can have disastrous consequences.

In this demo-only session, I’ll walk you through the most common mistakes I have to clean up when working with clients who made the grievous mistake of embracing convenience, thinking that SQL Server is their friend.

We’ll go over data type choices, code abstractions, query patterns, and some of the very inconvenient truths about SQL Server performance. You’ll learn how to spot problems in queries and query plans, and how to fix them before they cause the next outage.