Code-named Denali – the next version of SQL Server is fast approaching.

And whenever CTP2 gets released you can be sure to expect some excellent new features.

Over the next week or so, I aim to delve into these delights, highlighting those to look out for.

Columnar Indexes

Dubbed as one of the more important new features that Denali has to offer, Columnar Indexes combine high performance and high compression to offer vastly improved query performance.

Indexed data is stored column-wise and only the needed columns are returned as query results for columnar indexes.

Seems like it can be a very big win in DataWarehouse environments ?!