Alastair Aitchison is a freelance technology consultant based in Norwich, England. He has experience across a wide variety of software and service platforms, and has worked with SQL Server 2008 since the earliest technical previews were made publicly available. Alastair has a particular interest in analysis of spatial data, and is the author of Beginning Spatial with SQL Server 2008 (Apress, 2009). He speaks at user groups and conferences, and is a highly active contributor to several online support communities, including the Microsoft SQL Server Developer Center forums.