This wasn't so much about fine tuning SQL Server itself, but breaking traditional thinking. The 5 rules he presents originally are all replaced in the end.
- Everybody's the DBA
- Do what it takes to get what you want
- Tune later, cache & separate now
- NewEgg your way out of problems
- Share for great good
For each point, he argues why the old rule no longer applies and what the new solution is.
I felt a lot of the presentation was about tuning SQL Server without tuning SQL Server: caching, leave full-text searching to Apache Lucene (because it's not querying), and using SSDs to speed up performance without having to touch any code.
Yep, absolutely, you nailed it. There's a gazillion presentations out there about tuning databases, but that only takes you so far. I wanted to show that you need to take a step back before you go into query tuning details.
I felt a lot of the presentation was about tuning SQL Server without tuning SQL Server: caching, leave full-text searching to Apache Lucene (because it's not querying), and using SSDs to speed up performance without having to touch any code.