Allan Hirt, Consultant, Microsoft Consulting Services (MCS), has been involved extensively in work with SQL Server and high availability over the past two years. His credentials include:

• The "SQL Server 2000 Failover Clustering" white paper posted to Microsoft.com
• Authoring part of the courseware for the SQL Server High Availability Event in Redmond, WA (June 2001)
• Leading SQL Server 2000 High Availability Post-Training at MGB, 2001
• Authoring the customer-ready version of the High Availability Event material (both the one-day and the three-day)
• Wrote chapters (including "Log Shipping," "Failover Clustering," "Five Nines," and "Federated Servers") for the SQL Server 2000 Resource Kit
• Speaking on high availability at conferences such as TechEd, MGB, and SQL PASS
• Subject Matter Expert for the internal eKM Database community, 2001