I’m sure at some point in your career you have come across a few SQL Server consultants or SQL Server trainers. You probably read one of their books, attended a conference and could chat with them, read some articles, or maybe taken an instructor led course.

But when you have the opportunity of working with them for a specific reason, you get to see what makes a SQL Server consultant stand-out.

• Listens to the issues that are critical to your company
• Can immediately prioritize issues
• Has suggestions on what path to take to resolve the issues
• Can and will help resolve the issues you have instead of recommending another consultant
• Can clearly discuss issues with upper management in their terms but also can speak technical to SQL Server database team and other IT staff
• Doesn’t hide from resolving any issues by pointing out trivial road blocks
• Experience in the specific technologies you are trying to use
• Can back up experience with actual project examples that have been completed successfully
• Doesn’t crap all over existing IT staff including the database team when speaking with upper management
• Tells the IT staff and database team where improvements can be made

So who is this SQL Server consultant?

Allan Hirt who ran an internal corporate custom private training session on DR/HA for 5 days that I attended. He is a managing partner of SQLHA. For additional information on Allan and his company please go to sqlha.com .

I hope you found your best SQL Server consultant but you know of one now!

I have no affiliation with SQLHA or Allan Hirt.