Establish a routine maintenance schedule that includes tasks such as database backups, integrity checks, and performance monitoring. Regular monitoring helps in early detection of potential issues, allowing for proactive measures before they escalate into significant problems. Ensure that all users interacting with the database are trained in best practices. Educating users on efficient query writing, proper data entry, and understanding the impact of their actions on performance can collectively contribute to a more efficient database environment.

For your database performance always consider 1. Tuning your query and execution plan. 2. Observing Query Store for query performance and forcing query to follow optimum execution plan 3. Doing proper indexing and periodically maintain it 4. Checking any bottleneck at cpu, memory or disk i/o 5. Planning about historical data removal from important tables. 6. Reviewing application architecture and implementing data caching

Well, if your database performance suddenly plummets, first thing you need to check what is currently running and causing this. Identifying the issue is critical whether it relates to database or OS. Review the CPU and Memory usage to check if there is any resource crisis, if it's there, check if it is SQL process or OS process. If SQL, look if there is sudden increase in workload, or there is blocking and any long running queries. Depending upon situation you need to act. The fix may involve tuning the queries for optimal performance, segregating the workload, in worst case may require SQL restart if SQL instance fails to connect due to high cpu usage.

Database performance suddenly plummets can be caused by: 1. Partitioned databases lacking timely new partitions, causing auto-partitioning and reduced efficiency. 2. Inefficient execution strategies or poorly performing indexes. 3. New features that exhaust resources create wait locks or infinite loops. ? Identify the root cause and resolve accordingly.