Successful companies grow in different ways. Last year, we brought Max into the SQLHA fold. That allowed us to develop much broader customer outreach, work on some of the world’s biggest and most complex architectures, and at the same time, expand our network of partnerships. This past year has been one of our best to date, and we have seen lots of opportunities out there. To fill this gap in the marketplace, we are spinning off a separate, independent company named Fortified Data that Ben will be leading. Ben is really excited about this opportunity to provide a wide range of higher end consulting services using an array of different resources. SQLHA may still do some of this work, but it is Fortified Data’s complete focus.

While both Max and I will miss working with Ben day-to-day as a partner, and I’m sure we’ll do joint opportunities from time to time, we will continue with SQLHA’s core mission and are as strong as ever. We will be delivering mission critical consulting and all that it encompasses (including the usual suspects – service monitoring, availability, architecture, private cloud, virtualization, etc.). We work with some of the best companies in the world to make sure that their SQL Server environments are the best they can be, and we’ve already got a busy year shaping up for 2015. SQLHA University will also grow in 2015 (stay tuned), and I’ll even even finish that mission critical book before 2015!

While spinning off Fortified Data was not planned when Ben and I started SQLHA three years ago, I am proud of everything that we have accomplished together. The best is yet to come for SQLHA and Max and I are excited to see what Ben does with Fortified Data. I know Ben and Fortified will be a success if the past three years are any indication.

You can also drop by the “Consultant’s Corner” booth at PASS Summit next week to find out more, where SQLHA and Fortified Data will be sharing space with our friends Heraflux Technologies and Denny Cherry & Associates .