Agreed on all Bob. I should have been more specific about my low-risk index stuff. I consider that to be nothing more than adding/including a column for example. Usually the biggest issue is the time it takes to actually do the alter. It may need to be performed during scheduled maint period. Adding a new single index that allows a frequently used query avoid a table scan has never in my experience led to such an increase in maintenance work that it wasn't still a big win. It is also my experience that the work to maintain a single new index and the locks involved are very, very low overhead compared to system total. Again, see my point 1. 🙂