Intel’s Meltdown and database performance

Unless you’ve been on an extended Christmas break with no TV or Internet, you’ll have heard of Intel’s recent troubles. While it’s true that most computers will not be noticeably affected, servers that read and write large amounts of data to disk will be impacted.

In my world, that affects two things – databases and reports.

Large queries will take longer to run (even longer again if they need to write to temporary tables). That means slower reports, slower data warehouse loads and more time to complete batches of scheduled reports.

In most situations, there are two ways to improve the performance. Either improve the report or improve the database.

Fortunately, we’ve been doing both for quite some time with plenty of success: Performance Tuning. Removing Subreports, Temporary Tables and Clever Indexes.

If your report performance needs improving, please contact us to discuss your options.