If you get into a car, how do you know if the car is fast or not? You hold down the gas pedal, and you time how long it takes before you're breakin' the law.
Now what about SQL Server: how do you know if yours is fast...or a clunker? Database performance tuners need to know three metrics about their SQL Server: how fast it's going, how hard it's working, and how big it is. Brent Ozar will explain where to get those numbers, and what normal ranges are. You'll learn why advice is so different, depending on the kind of server you're driving.