ASP.NET, SQL Server, WPF, C#, VB.NET

Hi all, 
 
I want to search all UserObject profile where first_name contains "Andrew". 
 
I saw that I can do this using ProfileWebService. Because some performance 
 
questions, I don´t want to do this using this Web Service. Is there another 
 
way to search for profiles like this? 
 
Any tips? 
 
Thanks!