I have been told by hundreds of DBAs that I have the best DBA job in the world as Director of DBA Education for Red Gate Software. And this has been very true. In the five plus years I have been with Red Gate I have traveled over 500,000 miles (breaking the million mile record on my frequent flyer program), slept in hotel rooms for just over 450 days, and given 154 presentations to over 10,300 people in six different countries. I have written four books, hundreds of blog posts and articles, and personally met thousands of DBAs. My face has been on millions of banner ads impressions, posters, and books, and of course, last year I had the most unusual experience of my life when I “starred” in a the DBA in Space videos. Being filmed by a professional film crew and working with a real actress will probably be the most unusual thing I will have ever done in my life. The last five plus years with Red Gate has been a wonderful ride, and a great opportunity to participate as an active member of the SQL Server family.

But things change. Because of recently changing family obligations, I am no longer able to travel as I have in the past, and because travel is part of my job, I have decided to resign from Red Gate Software. But that doesn’t mean I will be leaving Red Gate altogether. I will continue to do contract writing and editing work for Red Gate, including the SQLServerCentral.com Stairway Series, in addition to writing and editing articles for Simple-Talk.com.

In my time with Red Gate, I have worked with many great co-workers. While I don’t have room to mention all of them now, I want to give special thanks to Steve Jones, Grant Fritchey, Tony Davis, Andrew Clarke, and Phil Factor. I worked a lot with these fine individuals, and I will continue to be working with them, but on a much more limited basis.

I also want to thank all of the user group leaders, and conference chairs, who have invited me to speak. Without your invitations, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity to reach out to so many DBAs.

Because of my inability to travel much, I will probably limit my travel to only attending PASS and the MVP Summit. On the other hand, I have only recently discovered that Springfield, MO, has an unusually large number of DBAs considering the size of its population, and I am in the process of starting a local PASS SQL Server users group called the Southwest Missouri SQL Server Users Group, and I will continue to blog and participate in the SQL Server family, on an albeit, smaller scale.

In addition, I have been hired as the lead DBA for a large firm whose national headquarters is located here in Springfield. MO. This new opportunity will allow me to get my hands dirty again as a production DBA, and also expand my skillset as I lead a new BI initiative at the company.

These five plus years have been a wild ride that I will never forget, but for now, I need to settle down and spend more time on important family matters. Thanks again for everyone who has attended my sessions, read any of my material, or shaken my hand at one of the many events I have attended. I’ll stay in touch.

Brad