> > I stumbled upon this MSDN "Patterns and Practises" page that describes > what I am talking about. > > https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-au/library/dn589791.aspx >
I like that article, it's sensible and it describes when you should and should not use the technique of making artificial indexes to speed up queries. On the weekend I ran a technical experiment to convert my personal SQL Server database of music, videos and books into Azure tables, and I think it went quite well. It forces you to "renormalize" everything into a different shape to use two string keys, and in one case I did have to create an artificial index table like the article describes. Of course there are very limited transactions and no join concepts in Azure tables, but I don't mind working around that to get the particular benefits of table storage (mainly that it's dirt cheap and fast). *GK*
