What are the benefits of using partitions with the Enterprise edition of SQL 2005

Question

I'm comparing between two techniques to create partitioned tables in SQL 2005.

• Use partitioned views with a standard version of SQL 2005 (described here)
• Use the built in partition in the Enterprise edition of SQL 2005 (described here)

Given that the enterprise edition is much more expensive, I would like to know what are the main benefits of the newer enterprise built-in implementation. Is it just an time saver for the implementation itself. Or will I gain real performance on large DBs?

I know i can adjust the constraints in the first option to keep a sliding window into the partitions. Can I do it with the built in version?

Answer 1

searchdotnet rulz! check this out:

http://www.eggheadcafe.com/forumarchives/SQLServerdatawarehouse/Dec2005/post25052042.asp

Updated: that link is dead. So here's a better one http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms345146(SQL.90).aspx#sql2k5parti_topic6

From above:

Some of the performance and manageability benefits (of partioned tables) are

• Simplify the design and implementation of large tables that need to be partitioned for performance or manageability purposes.
• Load data into a new partition of an existing partitioned table with minimal disruption in data access in the remaining partitions.
• Load data into a new partition of an existing partitioned table with performance equal to loading the same data into a new, empty table.
• Archive and/or remove a portion of a partitioned table while minimally impacting access to the remainder of the table.
• Allow partitions to be maintained by switching partitions in and out of the partitioned table.
• Allow better scaling and parallelism for extremely large operations over multiple related tables.
• Improve performance over all partitions.
• Improve query optimization time because each partition does not need to be optimized separately.

Answer 2

When using the partitioned tables you can more easily move data from partition to partition. You can also partition the indexes as well.

You can also move data from one partition to another table as needed with a single ALTER TABLE command.