Five things SQL Server should add

Here's my list...enjoy!

Super-stealth DBA/SSIS expert Jamie Thomson came up with a great list entitled "Five things SSIS should drop", and Aaron Bertrand offered the blog "5 things SQL Server should drop"; I thought I'd throw in my .02 cents and give my own list...Five things SQL Server should add.  Here they are and in no particular order:

1. Object Restores from a backup - How many times have you wanted to just restore a proc, a table, or some other some other object in SQL Server from a backup?  I have.  Who cares if a table is "transactionally consistent"!  Just give me the table as-is and let me fix it.  We had table restores in SQL Server 6.5 but they removed them, remember? Bring 'em back!!!
   
2. More minimally-logged operations - With the advent of the very popular document and key-value pair databases roaming the landscape (MongoDB, Cassandra, Hadoop, et. al.), we need to add more minimally or better yet completely non-logged operations at some point in SQL Server to compete with these guys. The new INSERT WITH (TABLOCK) is great - so what's next?  Again, just let me decide if I want to send the data without logging, and let me be responsible to see that the rows got there.  I already check for them anyway.  Some operations just don't need to be logged.  For example, do you think uploading a comment on facebook needs to be logged?  Uh no.  Just retry if it fails.  Give me the option to be "reasonably sure" rather than 100% positive at my discretion.
   
3. Linked Servers with optimized distributed transactions - If we're going to scale out, let's scale out the right way. If you have a multi-server architecture that uses the MSDTC, you automatically have a non-optimized query. Congratulations.  Give me a query optimizer that can look at both sides of the fence and make heads or tails of query optimization.  Also, give me high-performance linked servers. MSDTC code hasn't been changed in 10-15 years;  Let's chuck it and redo the whole process.  (Either that or just get rid of it entirely).
   
4. "Shared-something" or "Shared Everything" Architecture - Wouldn't it be cool to have one database file across multiple servers? Wouldn't it be cool to have a pool of RAM, disk, CPU that could be dynamically moved around a farm of servers?  Wouldn't it be nice to have a cluster that does more than just "high availability"?  Give me the processing power of RAIW. (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Workstations).  It won't work?  Uh, don't tell the boys from Terradata - they have it and it's great.  And, maybe we will as well someday soon ;)
   
5. Add Ctl-B to SSMS - This was the greatest feature ever for those of us who used it in SQL 7 and 2000 Enterprise Manager.  Who took it out and why?  Huh? CTL + B was the shortcut that grabbed the query results window; when you wanted to move it, it snagged the bar between the results pain and the query window allowed you to slide it up or down with a mouse. Bring it back ASAP!!!

Thanks for reading!

Lee

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Buford T. Justice: Well, thank you, Mr. Bandit. And as the pursuer, may I say you're the ***dam*dest pursuee I've ever pursued. Now that the mutual bullsh*t is over, WHERE ARE YOU, YOU SOMB*TCH?