With business central 29 Microsoft have introduced lot of new features.
Business Central administrators can now turn SIFT indexes on or off directly from the application. This adds an important layer of database-performance control to the Table Information experience and gives administrators more flexibility to balance read performance, write performance, and storage.
What Are SIFT Indexes in Business Central?
SIFT stands for SumIndexField Technology. SIFT is designed to make aggregate calculations—such as sums and counts—faster, especially when Business Central works with large tables.
SIFT works with keys that contain SumIndexFields. Business Central uses SQL indexed views to maintain pre-calculated aggregate information. When an application needs a total, the database can use these maintained values rather than calculating the aggregation from the entire base table.
This is particularly relevant to FlowFields, CalcSums, and queries that use aggregate operations.
Why does SIFT improve read performance?
Imagine a large ledger table containing millions of entries. If Business Central frequently needs the total amount for a particular account and date range, calculating that total directly from all matching records can be expensive.
A SIFT structure can maintain the relevant aggregates ahead of time. When the total is requested, Business Central can retrieve the required information much more efficiently.
The trade-off is important, though: SIFT structures have to be maintained whenever records are inserted, modified, or deleted.
What Is the Trade-Off With SIFT?
SIFT is not automatically “good” or “bad.” It is a performance optimization with a cost.
An enabled SIFT index can improve read and aggregation performance, but maintaining it creates additional database work during writes. The overhead depends on factors such as the number of SIFT keys and their SumIndexFields.
That means a SIFT index that is heavily used for important calculations can be valuable, while a SIFT index supporting an infrequently used calculation may create unnecessary maintenance overhead.
Microsoft's guidance specifically notes that SIFT keys should be maintained when they are important to the application and that disabling SIFT can improve modification performance in appropriate scenarios.
What Changed in Business Central 2026 Release Wave 1?
Business Central 2026 release wave 1 introduced application-level administration of database indexes through the Table Information page.
Administrators gained visibility into indexes and could turn eligible indexes on or off for a company or across companies.
However, SIFT indexes were protected and could not be disabled through that experience.
This was an important first step: administrators could begin making data-driven index decisions without changing the AL application or directly managing the database.
What Is New in 2026 Release Wave 2?
Business Central 2026 release wave 2 extends this capability to SIFT.
Microsoft added the ability for administrators to turn SIFT indexes on or off directly in the Business Central application.
This is significant because SIFT indexes are not ordinary secondary indexes. They support aggregate calculations and can influence the balance between read performance and write performance.
The new capability gives administrators a practical operational control that previously required application-level configuration or developer involvement.
How Do You Turn a SIFT Index On or Off?
The management experience is centered around Table Information and the table's data-management view.
The general workflow is:
Open Table Information using Search / Tell Me.
Select the relevant table.
Open the table's data-management information.
Select the company for which you want to inspect the indexes.
Review the indexes and their usage information.
Select the SIFT index you want to manage.
Use the available action to turn the index off or on.
The capability is designed to help administrators make decisions at the environment/company level based on actual index usage.
Turning an index off is therefore not something to do simply because an index appears unused in isolation. You should first understand which application scenarios depend on the index.
Why Is This Useful for Business Central Administrators?
For administrators, the biggest benefit is operational control.
Previously, an administrator who identified an index-related performance concern might need to involve a developer or change the application definition. With application-level index management, administrators can inspect index usage and make targeted changes without modifying the table object.
This is especially useful in environments where:
Large tables receive frequent inserts or updates.
Certain SIFT indexes have little practical usage.
Write performance is a concern.
Storage consumption needs to be reduced.
Different companies have different workloads.
The per-company capability is particularly useful in multi-company environments because an index may be valuable for one company but unnecessary for another.
How Does This Help Business Central Consultants?
For consultants, this feature adds another tool to the performance-tuning toolbox.
A consultant can now investigate whether database indexes—including SIFT structures—are contributing to a customer's performance profile and work with the administrator on a targeted configuration.
Instead of immediately recommending development changes, a consultant can ask a more useful question:
Is this SIFT index actually being used enough to justify its maintenance cost?
That leads to a more evidence-based performance conversation.
Consultants should still avoid treating index usage statistics as an automatic decision engine. Functional requirements, workload patterns, important FlowFields, reporting scenarios, and customizations all need to be considered.
What Does This Mean for Developers?
Developers still have an important role.
SIFT remains an application-design concern. Developers define keys, SumIndexFields, and the MaintainSIFTIndex behavior in AL. They also understand which FlowFields, queries, and business processes depend on specific indexing strategies.
The new administrator capability does not replace good AL design.
Instead, it creates a useful separation:
Developers design the application's data model and indexing strategy.
Consultants analyze workload and functional requirements.
Administrators can operationally manage eligible indexes based on actual environment usage.
This can reduce the need for application changes when the issue is primarily operational.
What Value Does This Add for Customers?
For customers, the main value is more control over performance tuning.
Business Central environments can have very different workloads. A high-volume transactional customer may prioritize write performance, while another customer may have heavy reporting and aggregation requirements.
The ability to turn SIFT indexes on or off provides another lever for tuning the environment.
The important point is that disabling SIFT is not a universal performance recommendation. It is a targeted optimization that should be based on workload and usage.
Should You Turn Off SIFT Indexes?
Not automatically.
SIFT can be valuable when aggregate calculations are frequent and expensive to calculate directly from the base table. Turning off a SIFT index can reduce maintenance overhead, but the corresponding calculations may need to be performed against the base data instead.
A good approach is:
Identify the performance problem.
Review index usage.
Understand which business processes use the SIFT-supported calculations.
Consider the impact on both reads and writes.
Test the change where possible.
Monitor the environment after the change.
The goal is not to have fewer indexes. The goal is to have the right indexes for the workload.
What Should Business Central Teams Watch Out For?
There are three common mistakes to avoid.
1. Disabling an index simply because usage is low
Low observed usage does not automatically mean an index is unnecessary. A rarely executed process can still be business-critical.
2. Looking only at read performance
SIFT can improve aggregation performance, but maintaining SIFT structures adds work to inserts, updates, and deletes.
Performance tuning should therefore consider both sides of the equation.
3. Treating administrator controls as a replacement for good development
Application design still matters. Excessive or poorly designed SIFT keys can create unnecessary maintenance overhead. The new feature gives administrators more control, but it does not remove the need for developers to design efficient data structures.
The Bigger Picture
The evolution from 2026 release wave 1 to release wave 2 is interesting.
Wave 1 introduced application-level management of database indexes through Table Information. Wave 2 expands that model to SIFT indexes.
This moves more database-performance management into the Business Central application itself.
For customers and partners, that means performance tuning can become more observable, evidence-based, and operationally manageable—without assuming every indexing change requires an application deployment.
FAQ
What is SIFT in Business Central?
SIFT, or SumIndexField Technology, is a Business Central mechanism that uses maintained aggregate structures to make certain sum and count calculations faster.
What is a SIFT index?
A SIFT index is associated with a Business Central key containing SumIndexFields. Business Central uses SQL indexed views to maintain aggregate information for those fields.
Can administrators turn SIFT indexes off in Business Central?
Starting with the capability introduced in 2026 release wave 2, administrators can turn SIFT indexes on or off directly in the Business Central application through the table index-management experience.
Does disabling SIFT always improve performance?
No. Disabling SIFT can reduce the overhead of maintaining SIFT structures during writes, but calculations that previously benefited from SIFT may require more work when they are executed. The result depends on the workload.
Should developers stop using SIFT?
No. Developers should continue to design indexing based on application requirements and workload. The new administrator capability provides an additional operational control; it does not replace sound data-model and performance design.
Conclusion
The ability to turn SIFT indexes on and off is a small-looking feature with important implications for Business Central performance management.
It gives administrators more control, gives consultants another tuning option, gives customers more flexibility, and gives developers a clearer separation between application design and operational index management.
The key is to use the feature deliberately: measure usage, understand the workload, consider both reads and writes, and then make the indexing decision.
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