/ 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
Seven SQL Server Signs the Illuminati Exist
April 1, 2019
Database
The signs that the Illuminati exist are all around us. You can find their marking on our buildings, on our currency, and even in our music videos. The Illuminati thrive…
How to Clean Dirty Data – The Life of a Data Janitor
January 24, 2019
Database
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in my decades as a data professional, it’s this: Things aren’t what you think they are. Data’s ultimate purpose is to drive decisions. But our…
Three Ways to Become Data-Centric
January 10, 2019
Database
The conservation of quantum information is a theory that information can neither be created nor destroyed. Stephen Hawking used this theory to explain how a black hole does not consume…
Quantum Computing Will Put Your Data at Risk
November 29, 2018
Database
“Too many secrets.” – Martin Bishop One of the pivotal moments in the movie Sneakers is when Martin Bishop realizes that they have a device that can break any encryption…
Why I’m Not Worried About Skynet
November 15, 2018
Database
I’m 98% confident if you ask three data scientists to define Artificial Intelligence (AI), you will get five different answers. The field of AI research dates to the mid-1950s, and…
No, You Don’t Need a Blockchain
November 1, 2018
Database
The hype around blockchain technology is reaching a fever pitch these days. Visit any tech conference and you’ll find more than a handful of vendors offering it in one form…
Cheers to the IT Pro!
September 18, 2018
Security
Today is the 4th annual IT Pro Day, a day created by SolarWinds to recognize the IT pros that keep businesses up and running each and every day, all year…
Databases 101 – Factors to Consider When Choosing a Database
September 6, 2018
Database
In part one of this series, we discussed the different types of databases available on the market today. In part two, we discussed how to choose the right database for…
Databases 101: Choosing the Right Database
August 20, 2018
Database
In my last post, we talked about the different types of databases available on the market for you to choose from. With over 300 options, it is hard to know…
Five Common Problems with SQL Server
July 12, 2018
Database

I’ve been working with SQL Server since what seems like forever ++1. The truth is I haven’t been a production DBA in more than 6 years (I work in marketing now, in case you didn’t know). That means I will soon hit a point in my life where I will be an ex-DBA for the same period of time as I was a production DBA (about seven years).

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