They do have a cluster: http://www.brentozar.com/archive/2012/09/microsoft-sql-s...

		jtseng on Aug 1, 2014 \| parent \| context \| favorite \| on: StackOverflow Update: 560M Pageviews a Month, 25 S... They do have a cluster: http://www.brentozar.com/archive/2012/09/microsoft-sql-serve... They just run everything through one live database all the time under normal conditions. Personally, I think this is much simpler to manage than to be regularly spreading out queries over many queries.