INPUTS TO PHYSICAL DATABASE DESIGN

Physical database design starts where logical database design ends. That is, the well structured relational tables produced by the conversion from entity-relationship diagrams or by the data normalization process form the starting point for physical database design. But these tables are only part of the story. In order to determine how best to modify the tables to improve application performance, a wide range of factors must be considered. The factors will help determine which modification techniques to apply and how to apply them. And, at that, the process is as much art as science. The choices are so numerous and the possible combinations of modifications are so complex that even the experienced designer hopes for a satisfactory but not ....