About Me

I make Microsoft SQL Server go faster.

Brent Ozar, Mazatlan, Dec 2018

I’ve been working with databases since the late 1990s. I got my start in hotels & restaurants, and then realized no matter how far you go in hospitality, you’re still working weekends and holidays. I wanted to have weekends & holidays off with my family, plus make more money, so I switched over to tech, and eventually specialized in databases. As it turned out, I still worked weekends & holidays, but … at least I made more money.

These days, I run Brent Ozar Unlimited, a tiny company that does online services, training, and consulting to help fix slow SQL Servers.

Some of the things I’ve built include:

I love teaching, travel, and laughing.

I work to live, not the other way around, so I try to take as much personal time off as I can. I think of it as rehearsing for retirement, hahaha. In our spare time, my wife Erika and I have a great time seeing the world. You can keep up with our travels on my Instagram feed.

brento

I live in Iceland with my wife Erika.

I grew up all over the Midwest US: Missouri, Indiana, Kentucky, Tennessee – and then spent my high school years in Michigan. I got tired of the cold, so when it came time for college, I raced down to Houston, Texas. After that, in the hospitality industry, I kept moving around to work with hotels across Florida, Virginia, Mississippi, and more. I’m very comfortable moving around and discovering new places.

Erika and I met in Texas, and we’ve lived in Miami Beach, Chicago, and now San Diego. I’ve always felt like a Californian at heart. I’m laid back, and I think California prioritizes things that are important to me, too. And you can’t beat the weather. Right now, we’re spending some time in Iceland, though.

If you want to stay in touch, I’m @BrentO on Twitter, BrentOzar on Facebook, and @BrentOzar on TikTok.

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