Bob started working with SQL Server 2000 when he was in high school. Graduating with a degree in Computer Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he started his career as a .NET software developer. After two years he moved to the database team, and has worked in database administration...

Uwe Ricken is working with IT-systems since 1991 and especially with SQL Server since version 6.0. He started with the development of database applications in 1998 with a professional CRM-System based on Microsoft products (Microsoft Office and SQL Server). Since 2008 he focused completely on SQL Server...

Clas started working with SQL Server (6.5) in 1995 and has never lost his addiction to it. Since more than 13 years he is now located at the SAP headquarter in Germany and is doing worldwide consulting and development support for SAP and SAP customers running on SQL Server of all releases. He is contributor...

Behind every Master certification is a story. In this post, Zewei (AKA "Dr. Z") shares his: Dr. Z is Master Z now!

Behind every Master certification is a story. Many thanks to Bill for sharing this one: SharePoint 2010 MCM

Behind every Master certification is a story. Thanks to Kirk for sharing his! How I Became a SharePoint 2010 MCM

We're kicking off a new and continuing series of posts for our program today that I hope you find both valuable and enjoyable. One of the most common requests I get from prospective MCSMs about the program is for testimonials explaining the value of the program. No one delivers that better than those...

Sean has been working exclusively with SQL Server since 2008. His first foray into the world of SQL Server was migrating a database from another RDBMS system to SQL Server 2005. Decided having liked SQL Server he pursued a career as a DBA as hasn't looked back. Sharing knowledge, learning, and helping...

Due to the upcoming retirement of our MCM exams, and our desire to provide our candidates with enough time to complete the process that they have invested in heavily, effective immediately the following changes are being put into place. If you are retaking an MCM exam for the first time (i.e. you...

Jameel has an extensive background in best practices,performance monitoring & tuning, high availability, disaster recovery, and Business Intelligence solutions. He loves a challenge and prides on creating innovative solutions by using an arsenal of technologies at his disposal. He has also...

Jon has worked primarily with SQL Server since leaving his studies back in 2001. It was while studying for his degree that his passion for data really developed and helped to guide him on his career path. Now based in Bristol in the South West of England he enjoys nothing more than working and helping...

Jason is first and foremost a family man. He has 15+ yrs experience in IT and has worked with SQL Server starting with SQL Server 6.5. He has worked for both large and small companies in varied industries. He has experience in performance tuning, high transaction environments, large environments, and...

Patrick is a reformed developer who discovered SQL Server when Access and Excel became too limiting. He is currently employed as Senior SQL Server DBA at Link Market Services Limited His first exposure to SQL Server was using version 7.0 as a Visual Basic 6 programmer but only became a full-time...

Evgeny Garaev has been working as database administrator since 2005. He started his career as Oracle DBA in 2005. In 2008 he decided to become MS SQL Server DBA. Since then Evgeny has been working as MS SQL Server database administrator, developer and architect. He specializes in database architecture...

Paul is a freelance SQL Server professional who first started working with SQL Server 14 years ago. His first exposure to SQL Server was using version 7.0 as a Visual Basic 5/6 programmer. He continued on using .Net and C# working on Windows forms and web site development before moving on to concentrate...

David Levy is a developer turned DBA. He began his career in 2000 after graduation from Northern Illinois University with a degree in Operations Management and Information Systems with an Emphasis in Information Systems. After several years of increasingly complex development work David moved into...

Ben Miller is an Enterprise DBA Architect working for HealthEquity Inc. in Draper, Utah. HealthEquity ( http://www.healthequity.com ) is one of the largest HSA (Health Savings Account) providers in the nation. Ben is responsible for the scalability and performance of all databases in the company. ...

Please watch your inbox for an invite to hear Darmadi Komo and Luis Daniel Soto Maldonado present the SQL Server Roadmap. This event will occur next week. I am working on finalizing the time. You must have an active NDA in place in order to attend. You may not Tweet, blog, Facebook, PIntrest etc...

Currently for the MCM SQL Server 2008 Knowledge Exam, there is a built in delay in the test taker getting their results. This is due to the fact that the exam was listed as Beta during publishing to Prometric. There is then a once a month rescored that occurs, with your results being sent to you in the...

These pages will outline the topics covered by the Knowledge and Lab Exams for the MCSM: Data Platform Certification http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/Exam.aspx?ID=88-986&Locale=en-us http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/Exam.aspx?ID=88-987&Locale=en-us

The newest MCSM Knowledge exam was released to Prometric yesterday and you can begin scheduling your exams at any time. If you are a current MCM SQL Server 2008, we are still trying to get the adminstration tasks accomplished to grant you the MCSM: Charter Data Platform certification. You will...

In coordination with the SQL Server Product Group and the Data Platform Group I am pleased to announce that we will be providing access to the Data Platform Advisors Yammer group to all SQL Server MCMs and MCAs. Ok, what does that mean to me? The Data Platform Advisors is a Yammer Group that connects...

Tim Chapman is a Dedicated Premier Field Engineer with Microsoft where he specializes in training and working with large customers on performance tuning, high availability,and disaster recovery. Tim has been working with SQL Server since the SQL 2000 days as a database administrator, database engineer...

Thomas LaRock is a seasoned IT professional with over a decade of technical and management experience. Currently serving as a Technical Evangelist for Confio Software, Thomas has progressed through several roles in his career including programmer, analyst, and DBA. Thomas holds a MS degree in Mathematics...

As Jimmy May (@aspiringgeek) alluded to yesterday there is big news in the MCM / MCSM world for SQL Server. In the early days (i.e. when I went through the SQL Ranger program) there was on campus, required training in order to obtain the MCM certification. At some point in the distant past, the...