/ Thomas LaRock

Thomas LaRock

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Thomas LaRock

Thomas LaRock is a Head Geek™ at SolarWinds and a Microsoft® Certified Master, Microsoft Data Platform MVP, VMware® vExpert, and former Microsoft Certified Trainer. He has over 20 years’ experience in the IT industry as a programmer, developer, analyst, and database administrator. LaRock has spent much of his career focused on data and database administration, which led to his being chosen as a Technical Evangelist for Confio Software in 2010, where his research and experience helped to create the initial versions of the software now known as SolarWinds® Database Performance Analyzer. LaRock has served on the board of directors for the Professional Association for SQL Server® (PASS), and is an avid blogger, author, and technical reviewer for numerous books about SQL Server management. He now focuses on working with customers to help resolve problems and answer questions regarding database performance tuning and virtualization for SQL Server, Oracle®, MySQL®, SAP®, and DB2®. He’s made it his mission to give IT and data professionals longer weekends.

The Latest Posts Featuring Thomas LaRock

Data Security and Privacy Techniques for Everyone
June 17, 2020
Security
Everyone on the internet should follow good data security and privacy practices. And when I say everyone, I mean everyone. IT pros aren’t the only people who need to protect…
Becoming Your Family’s IT Support
Have you gotten the call/email/text yet? You know, the one where your mom tells you the printer is making a weird noise. Normally you’d reassure your mom it’s probably a…
Outcomes From Home
This post is not meant to be a typical “here’s how you work from home” post. This is not a post about routines, habits, equipment, or if you should shower…
Thoughts on the VividCortex Acquisition
December 20, 2019
Database
I visited the Austin office this past week, my last trip to SolarWinds HQ for 2019. It’s always fun to visit Austin and eat my weight in pork products, but…
SolarWinds at Microsoft Ignite 2019
Microsoft Ignite is taking place November 4 – 8 in Orlando, and SolarWinds will be there to share the latest in IT management, from IT operations to outsourced IT and…
National Cybersecurity Awareness Month—Remedies for Today’s Common Threats
October 18, 2019
Security
In our third Cybersecurity Awareness Month blog, Thomas LaRock explains how good backup and email protection could help save your bacon if the worst happens. An executive at your company…
The Database Future Is in the Cloud
October 16, 2019
Database
I’ve written before about the disappearing DBA, and how the database administration role itself is evolving. I believe the days of tuning indexes are ending, one page at a time.…
IT Pro Day Turns Five
September 10, 2019
Security
Today is the 5th annual IT Pro Day, a day created by SolarWinds to recognize the IT pros who keep businesses up and running each and every day, all year…
VMworld Recap
September 4, 2019
Events
This past week, I was in San Francisco for the annual VMworld conference. I haven’t been to this city since 2014, the last time VMworld was here. It was interesting…
Databases 101: Types of Databases
April 30, 2019
Database
With SolarWinds, IT pros are discovering a smarter way to manage apps, servers, databases, and hybrid clouds. The shift starts here. The internet is littered with information, and misinformation, regarding…
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