About Mike Walsh

Mike Walsh

Who Is Mike Walsh?

Hi – I’m Mike Walsh. Professionally, I am a SQL Server Database Administrator/Engineer on a systems engineering department at EBSCO Publishing in Ipswich, MA. It’s a fun role where I am able to help steer the SQL Server strategy of the company as part of a great team. I’m also able to play “internal consultant” to various development and business intelligence teams helping them out with SQL Server performance and architecture type questions. This blog, however, is my own, and the thoughts contained within it are mine, and not my full time employer’s.

Personally, I am a husband, father to three great children and a Christian. I spend spare time playing with my kids, fly-fishing in New England, swimming and blogging about various topics in a few places. Our family also has a small flock of backyard chickens that we enjoy taking care of in exchange for some great eggs.

With over ten years of SQL Server experience under my belt, I’m at the stage in my career where I finally realize that, while I recognize my strengths, I still have much to learn with my favorite product. To that end, I really enjoy going deep with SQL Server skills and technologies. I see this blog as a way to encourage my own learning while sharing knowledge with you as I strive to answer all the questions you could ask while checking this blog out.

I started StraightPath Consulting in 2006 as a way to put my skills and experiences to use for organizations that might be lacking in the DBA role or are missing an on-site SQL Server Subject Matter Expert. My experiences throughout the years offer a lot to companies experiencing database performance, design, or administration needs. Be it a best practice audit or a “firefight” with critical performance needs, I enjoy stepping in to help select clients on a part time basis.

I love teaching and sharing my passion about SQL Server and this opportunity has allowed me to travel to some interesting places to teach some fun custom courses to folks. While my preference is to be able to fix a problem and mentor your existing staff to share my knowledge as I go (keeping the new skills in house after I’m gone), I also enjoy coming in and doing all the dirty work on my own.

StraightPath’s name comes from the “straight path” that I was called to walk when I accepted Jesus Christ into my heart as the only way to salvation. Through StraightPath, I hope to glorify God through my work, living out the truth of the verse I selected as a “company verse”.

“And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ.” Col 3:23-24

You can learn more about services I can help you with on our consulting page.

SQL Server Blog

What better way to reach out to folks and share tips and tricks than to maintain a blog? I started this as a way to keep track of my own tips and tricks learned along the way as a personal library to share with folks. Shortly after starting with that purpose, I changed the mission into one of sharing knowledge, learning about new skills for blog topics and engaging the SQL Server community (and myself!) with some professional development challenges or thoughts.

You can navigate over to my blog here. I hope you enjoy what you find. If you have questions or comments or experiences of your own to share, I encourage you to leave a comment or reach out to me via our contact us form. If you have a question, feel free to ask it and I will do my best to answer. If it’s a quick question, I have no problem spending a few moments to either help answer your question or point you in the right direction and I’ll enjoy helping you out.

Subscribe to this SQL Server Blog

Please feel free to stay in touch with the updates to my blog through subscribing. You can either subscribe to my rss feed in your favorite feed reader or through e-mail at this link. I strive to keep SQL Server and Professional Development content updated regularly.

You can also feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn or Twitter.

Thanks and Welcome,

Mike Walsh