Who the Chuff Are Aireforge?
Good question? Probably not, but you're here now and may as well keep reading.
Soooooo........ you want to know more about us?
You must be keen if you're reading the About Us section, but who are we to judge. Anyway, cheers for taking an interest in what we're doing and hopefully you find this story "informative and stimulating".
Back in the Day
Aireforge was founded by Drew and Phil back in 2015. Phil was working as a contract DBA for a customer who had a scale-out pool of ~150 SQL Servers, where a slight difference in a server configuration could play havoc with response times and stability. After spending hours creating, running, analyzing and tuning scripts to compare servers, we finally bit the bullet and wrote an application to help.
Alien👽Armpit and OmniCompare
As we planned to create a range of products for managing large SQL Server estates, we decided to prefix the module names with Omni; so OmniCompare, OmniScript, OmniCheck etc. We also needed a company name. It isn't clear where it came from, and you have to remember that this was 2015, so a simpler time before COVID, but Phil suggested Alien Armpit; which stuck (for about six months).
I like the Alien Armpit name. The colour itself is f**king nasty though!
In 2016, we got rid of the name and kept the color.
Aireforge ("After the Virus")?
Drew left, citing artistic differences and the Aireforge team began to work alongside our colleagues at xTEN, who are experts in everything SQL Server and Azure. xTEN are using the Aireforge tools, some of which aren't public yet, to transform the managed services industry and so far, it's working well.
The improvements and programs developed in conjunction with xTEN benefit our customers, as managing hundreds of different databases, versions, and business requirements, really put our tools through their paces. Both companies have headquarters in Leeds, Yorkshire but the team mainly work from home, meeting up whenever possible.
We'd offer to stick the kettle on, but we probably wouldn't be in even if you took us up on the offer. If you do fancy a chinwag, send us a message, and we can arrange a virtual brew.