SQL server column store indexes

The SQL Server 11 release (code named "Denali") introduces a new data warehouse query acceleration feature based on a new index type called a column store index. The new index type combined with new query operators processing batches of rows greatly improves data warehouse query performance: in some cases by hundreds of times and routinely a tenfold speedup for a broad range of decision support queries. Column store indexes are fully integrated with the rest of the system, including query processing and optimization. This paper gives an overview of the design and implementation of column store indexes including enhancements to query processing and query optimization to take full advantage of the new indexes. The resulting performance improvements are illustrated by a number of example queries.