Forrest McDaniel explains via image:
Paul Randal is a SQL Server legend with loads of informative articles. But when I was a baby DBA first reading Inside the Storage Engine, I got a little stuck. It took many passes before, eventually, finally, it clicked. I wish I had a lightweight introduction, so in the practice of paying it forward…
Here’s the starting point: sometimes it’s easier to manage lots of small things (say, the 1s and 0s of data) by grouping them into larger things. It’s the same reason you don’t buy rice by the grain.
Read on for that introduction to the storage engine.