AUSTIN, TX--(Marketwired - Nov 6, 2014) - SolarWinds (NYSE: SWI), a leading provider of powerful and affordable IT performance management software, today announced that Microsoft has named SolarWinds Head Geek Lawrence Garvin a 10-time 2014 Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for demonstrating his deep commitment to helping others make the most of their technology and voluntarily sharing his passion and real-world knowledge of Microsoft products with the community.

　　Each year about 4,000 MVPs are honored from the more than 100 million social and technical Microsoft community members through nominations submitted by Microsoft and other community individuals. Candidates are rigorously evaluated for their technical expertise, community leadership, and voluntary community contributions in the previous years. Microsoft MVPs come from more than 90 countries, speak over 40 different languages, are awarded in more than 90 Microsoft technologies, and answer more than 10 million questions each year.

　　Garvin received his first Microsoft MVP award in 2005 and has received one each consecutive year for his continued contributions to and enthusiasm for the Microsoft community. Garvin is one of only 28 professionals worldwide named a Microsoft MVP in the Software Packaging, Deployment & Servicing category, which now comprises almost all of the products, tools and processes related in any way to distributing software. Garvin is an active member of the Microsoft TechNet™ WSUS forum, moderating and contributing thousands of posts annually. He is also part of an advisory committee with other MVPs to provide insight to the Microsoft Forums development teams.

　　"Lawrence brings over 25 years of experience to the SolarWinds Head Geek team and is continuously educating himself on the rapidly evolving world of IT whether it's on premise, hosted or in the cloud to ensure that he can share the latest technology developments with the IT Pros that look to him for guidance," said Suaad Sait, executive vice president, products and markets, SolarWinds. "Receiving his 10th Microsoft MVP award is a strong testament to Lawrence's generosity with his knowledge and his love for interacting and sharing his insights with the IT Pro community both as a Microsoft MVP and a Head Geek."

　　What is a Head Geek?

　　SolarWinds Head Geeks bring over 80 collective years of real-world expertise and renowned industry credentials to provide the IT Pro community with perspectives, advice, and discussion on the latest trends and challenges in technology. SolarWinds Head Geeks engage with IT Pros on SolarWinds'thwack® community forums and Geek Speak blog and provide advanced technical training in monthlySolarWinds Lab sessions. The Head Geeks also participate regularly on various IT forums including myITforum.com®, windows-noob.com, Stack Overflow®, and Spiceworks®.

　　Meet the other Head Geeks:

　　Leon Adato is a Head Geek and technical evangelist at SolarWinds, and is a Cisco® Certified Network Associate (CCNA®), MCSE and SolarWinds Certified Professional® (he was once a customer, after all). His 25 years of network management experience spans financial, healthcare, food and beverage, and other industries.

　　Patrick Hubbard is a Head Geek and senior technical product marketing manager at SolarWinds. With over 20 years' of IT experience spanning network management, data center, storage networks, VoIP, virtualization, and more, Hubbard's broad knowledge and hands-on expertise affirm his IT generalist authority.

　　Thomas LaRock is a Head Geek at SolarWinds, and a Microsoft Certified Master, SQL Server® MVP, VMware® vExpert, and a Microsoft Certified Trainer. He has over 15 years' experience in the IT industry in roles including programmer, developer, analyst, and database administrator.

　　Connect with the Head Geeks

　　·Twitter®: @HeadGeeks

　　·thwack:

　　·Leon: Adatole

　　·Patrick: Patrick.Hubbard

　　·Lawrence: LGarvin

　　·Thomas: SQLRockstar

　　About SolarWinds

　　SolarWinds (NYSE: SWI) provides powerful and affordable IT management software to customers worldwide from Fortune 500® enterprises to small businesses. In all of our market areas, our approach is consistent. We focus exclusively on IT Pros and strive to eliminate the complexity that they have been forced to accept from traditional enterprise software vendors. SolarWinds delivers on this commitment with unexpected simplicity through products that are easy to find, buy, use and maintain while providing the power to address any IT management problem on any scale. Our solutions are rooted in our deep connection to our user base, which interacts in our thwack online community to solve problems, share technology and best practices, and directly participate in our product development process. Learn more today at http://www.solarwinds.com/.

　　SolarWinds, SolarWinds & Design and thwack are the exclusive property of SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC or its affiliates. All other company and product names mentioned are used only for identification purposes and may be or are intellectual property of their respective companies.

　　© 2014 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All rights reserved.

　　Contact Information

　　MEDIA CONTACTS:

　　Nicole Fachet

　　Text100

　　Phone: 212.871.3950

　　[email protected]

　　Courtney Cantwell

　　SolarWinds

　　Phone: 512.682.9692

　　[email protected]