Big Thinkers – Kimberly Tripp and Paul Randal

I’m devoting this week to “Big Thinkers”. I want to highlight individuals who challenge my thought processes and cause me to think about my profession, my methodologies, and force me to reflect on my skills. Some of these individuals I have the privilege of knowing personally, others I have only known via Podcasts or Twitter. I’m hoping that by highlighting these Big Thinkers you too will be challenged to grow and evolve in your craft. Last week was focused on individuals in the development community, this week will focus on the SQL Server realm.

Today’s pick is actually a two for one special. Perhaps not fair since individually either of them is outstanding in the SQL Server field and have appeared on more podcasts and events than I can count, but since they got married they have become an unstoppable, inseparable duo. I speak of course of Paul Randal and Kimberly Tripp. While most couples argue over paint color, they argue over indexing strategies. As I said they’ve been on more podcasts than I can count, some of my favorites though were Dot Net Rocks Episodes 178, 110, 74, 217, plus RunAsRadio shows 104, 76, 74, 72, and my favorite Episode 36. In addition to podcasts I’ve seen them present live at TechEd.

I like Paul and Kim because they make SQL Server fun. Yes, I said fun. During one of their presentations I feel like a kid being shown a toy catalog a page at a time. When its over I can’t wait to get my hands on the geeky SQL Server toys I’ve just been shown. Take a listen, I believe you’ll find their fun infectious and will soon be ‘playing’ with a new toy called SQL Server.

(And just for the record, I don’t care what Carl Franklin says, Kimberly is the cuter one of the two. )