Why should you care?

Session/state or high-frequency trading style tables sometimes need it — not every ordinary Orders table.

See it live — copy this example

Run in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) or Azure Data Studio.

USE DataVerse;
-- Requires MEMORY_OPTIMIZED_DATA filegroup (setup omitted if not present)
-- CREATE TABLE dbo.CartSessions (
--   SessionId UNIQUEIDENTIFIER NOT NULL PRIMARY KEY NONCLUSTERED,
--   Payload NVARCHAR(MAX) NOT NULL,
--   LastTouch DATETIME2 NOT NULL
-- ) WITH (MEMORY_OPTIMIZED = ON, DURABILITY = SCHEMA_AND_DATA);

What happened?

• Commented template shows MEMORY_OPTIMIZED = ON.
• You must add a memory-optimized filegroup first.
• Start only when a measured bottleneck justifies the complexity.

Practice next

1. Check if your edition supports In-Memory OLTP.
2. Read filegroup requirements in docs.
3. Prototype a tiny session table in lab if available.
4. Compare DURABILITY = SCHEMA_ONLY vs SCHEMA_AND_DATA meanings.
5. List memory-optimized tables via sys.tables.is_memory_optimized.

Remember

In-Memory OLTP is specialized. Needs special filegroups. Use for proven hot spots.

Cart session hotspot

DataVerse stores ephemeral cart sessions in memory-optimized tables.

Outcome: Checkout staging handles spikes; durable orders stay on disk tables.