Home > Workload Solutions > SQL Server > Guides > Design Guide—SQL Server 2022 Database Solution with Object Storage on Dell Hardware Stack > Data tiering use case
Data tiering is another beneficial solution architecture that is offered by Dell. Transferring larger read-only fact tables out of the RDBMS system and into S3 compatible ECS can decrease the total duration and size of SQL Server backups. The SQL datafile storage footprint is also reduced by storing data externally in Dell Elastic Cloud Storage. By converting table data to Parquet format additional storage efficiencies are achieved. A simple T-SQL CETAS statement can be used to export data from the RDBMS to Parquet file format.
A Parquet file is a columnar storage format that performs exceptionally well when used as an external table for a SQL Server database. This usually results in reduced process time for aggregation queries compared to the row-oriented storage SQL Server traditionally uses.