Mike Walsh

Mike loves mentoring clients on the right Systems or High Availability architectures because he enjoys those lightbulb moments and loves watching the right design and setup come together for a client. He started Straight Path in 2010 when he decided that after over a decade working with SQL Server in various roles, it was time to try and take his experience, passion, and knowledge to help clients of all shapes and sizes. Mike is a husband, father to four great children, and a Christian. He’s a volunteer Firefighter and EMT in his small town in New Hampshire, and when he isn’t playing with his family, solving SQL Server issues, or talking shop, it seems like he has plenty to do with his family running a small farm in NH raising Beef Cattle, Chickens, Pigs, Sheep, Goats, Honeybees and who knows what other animals have been added!

If PASS Closed Its Doors…

February 22, 2011 by Mike Walsh

One measure I have heard used to measure the effectiveness of a church goes along the lines of “If your church closed its doors tomorrow, would anyone notice?” I think that works for any civic organization, individual life where you want service to others to be a part of that and also membership organizations like … Read more

SQL Saturday 71 – Now with BAM!!

February 17, 2011 by Mike Walsh

I am happy excited to be helping MVPs and fellow User Group Leaders Adam Machanic, Grant Fritchey and Tom LaRock plan a Saturday of free (unless you want to donate a totally optional $10 to help offset costs) learning for the Boston (and greater New England) SQL Server community. The four of us have been … Read more

SQL Saturday 60 Says Keep Speaking

February 15, 2011 by Mike Walsh

So last week I told you to start speaking and presenting what you know. I may even have a taker in John Sansom who blogs about SQL Server and chats on twitter. Looking forward to seeing John (and you!) on a speaker list someday. Well after having that series go up last week, I got … Read more

Vendors Doing It Right

February 11, 2011 by Mike Walsh

This is my contribution to the Un-SQL Friday series that the Midnight DBAs do. This week they’ve asked us to talk about vendors that are doing it right in some way. I bumped into the post and hemmed and hawed awhile about submitting a post but I decided to go for it. I’ll be honest … Read more

How Should I Present?

February 9, 2011 by Mike Walsh

While still borrowing from the titles for my series on why you should blog and some tips on how you could get started blogging I want to follow up to my earlier post on why should be speaking with some tips on how you can get started. Hopefully you read the first post and have … Read more

Why Should I Present?

February 10, 2011February 7, 2011 by Mike Walsh

I really enjoyed writing my “Why Blog?” Series last year. It was great to see a few bloggers start blogging after the couple posts and the video interviews I had with Brent Ozar. Well now I have a new call for you – Present. Speak. Stand in front of strangers and teach them what you … Read more

I Grew Up Before My Very Eyes

December 29, 2010 by Mike Walsh

I am stealing this topic from two sources. One is a tweet I just saw from Jose Chinchilla (@SQLJoe on twitter) where he announced “Blog post coming soon: “2000-2010 a Decade in Retrospect” Milestones in my personal life and career: A wife, 2 daughters, #SQL and Twitter.” The other is an idea that Janice Lee … Read more