SharePoint 2013  - Changes from an architectural prospective

SQL improvements and Shredded Storage

• Improvements at database layer to reduce the impact of scenarios that might invoke full table scans.
• Improve usage of advanced indexing features in SQL Server 2008 R2/2012
• Indexing - it allows database application to find data fast; without reading the whole table
• Shredded Storage changes the way files are stored in the SharePoint. Files are now shredded and only the changes are updated at the database layer. This reduces the impact caused by the document update
• Shredded Storage - It's a new data platform improvement in 2013 related to management of Large Binary Objects(BLOBs) such as MS PowerPoint, MS Word. Shredded Storage involves an algorithm that shreds the BLOB such as document into smaller chunks. This means if a document is changed and most shreds remain the same, SharePoint will save only the updated shreds back to the document and hook them up with original record.
• Shredded storage builds upon Cobalt protocol introduced in SharePoint 2010.
• Cobalt -