Reworking Indexes to Support an Evolving Application

Join us for our first 2025 Lunch and Learn!

Summary:
Long-lived databases are often rife with single use and last-ditch effort covering indexes. As applications evolve, these extra indexes may become obsolete, redundant, or grow to such proportion they’ve covered the entire table.

We'll walk through my approach to revisiting table indexes in the context of making an old application better, not just a single table cleaner. I will start by briefly covering how to identity you have a problem and where it may come from. Then, I’ll cover the importance of understanding the application and user experience when determining starting points and potential database behavior. I'll demonstrate how to use actual queries and existing database objects to build a scope of work. Finally, I’ll highlight what red flags to look for in usage metrics, and tips and tricks to find better solutions. You’ll leave with the tools to intelligently redesign table indexes and make a positive impact on your application as a whole.