MS SQL IO is tightly integrated with Windows, including modes (like instant file initialization) that are not accessible to user mode apps. That makes it 'kind

MS SQL IO is tightly integrated with Windows, including modes (like instant file initialization) that are not accessible to user mode apps. That makes it 'kind of Direct IO' on Windows, I am not familiar with the Linux port but I don't have any expectations there. MS SQL configuration and tuning is less and less about storage and more and more about server parameters (most defaults are coming from the SQL version that introduced it, ex. SQL 2000 almost 22 years ago), query and index tuning. The last 2 can make huge differences, many orders of magnitude, so this is where most time is spent optimizing. The server configuration part is usually a list of 10-20 parameters every DBA is changing from start almost never touch later. This makes it really easy on that part.