Issue link: http://hub-nl.insight.com/i/692679
48 C H A P T E R 4 | Improved database engine C H A P T E R 4 Improved database engine In past releases of SQL Server, Microsoft has targeted specific areas for improvement. In SQL Server 2005, the storage engine was new. In SQL Server 2008, the emphasis was on server consolidation. Now, in SQL Server 2016, you can find enhanced functionality across the entire database engine. With Microsoft now managing more than one million SQL Server databases through its Database as a Service (DBaaS) offering—Microsoft Azure SQL Database—it is able to respond more quickly to opportunities to enhance the product and validate those enhancements comprehensively before adding features to the on-premises version of SQL Server. SQL Server 2016 is a beneficiary of this new development paradigm and includes many features that are already available in SQL Database. In this chapter, we explore a few of the key new features, which enable you to better manage growing data volumes and changing data systems, manage query performance, and reduce barriers to entry for hybrid cloud architectures. TempDB enhancements TempDB is one of the components for which performance is critical in SQL Server because the database engine uses it for temporary tables, query memory spills, index rebuilds, Service Broker, and a multitude of other internal functions. TempDB file behavior has been enhanced and automated in SQL Server 2016 to eliminate many performance problems related to the basic configuration of the