First anniversary!

Exactly one year ago I posted my first article on my blog. It was about R2 which was announced on Tech-Ed 2008 in Barcelona. During this year I have written 279 blog postings covering all kind of topics on OpsMgr. And the way Microsoft is investing in OpsMgr and the other SC products as well (SCCM V3/vNext, DPM 2010, SCE 2010, SCOM vNext, SCSM, SCSM vNext to name a few…) there won’t be lack of information or experiences from the field to blog about.

Many times I get comments from visitors of this blog, thanking me for handing them a solution for an issue they bumped in to. This is very nice and respectful. How ever, it is my turn now to say thanks to the community since I see my blog as a two-edged sword. I learn just as much from it as well.

Without the input from much respected community members like (in random order) Pete Zerger, Maarten Goet, Alexandre Verkinderen, Anders Bengtsson, Graham Davies, Tim McFadden, Kris Bash and Cameron Fuller, many of them who run very good blogs, it wouldn’t have been what it is today. Thank you guys!

And besides the community there are some people working at Microsoft who I would like mention here as well. They have helped me on many occasions and provided me with good information. In random order: Stefan Stranger, Kevin Holman (almost spammed that guy :) ), Marius Sutara and Eugene Bykov. Thank you as well guys! And keep up the good work since SCOM and all other SC products are really great and growing up fast!

I might have forgotten to mention other names as well. But to them: Thank You!

Past, Present and the Future

Before I started my blog I gave it some serious thoughts. One of the main reasons was that I wanted to start a blog which is alive: at least eight informative postings on a monthly basis. So I realized I had to invest in it and keep on blogging. Not for a month or half a year but as long as it takes.

Also I have set myself certain goals. Among others these are:

1. Since there were already good OpsMgr blogs out there, mine had to be up to specs as well.
2. Because I don’t like copycats, the blog had to add something new to the community.
3. The blog had to be dedicated to OpsMgr and not to myself.
4. The blog must contain articles covering OpsMgr and not just one- or two-liners.
5. When an article is about trouble-shooting a certain issue, the article has to be complete, WITH the solution as well.
6. It had to grow to a certain level of attention from the OpsMgr Community.
7. The blog must have a positive character. No negative news or bashing/flaming. When  something is not OK, I simply do not blog about it.

When I look at the blog today I can say that it has reached many of the goals I had set out a year ago. I do get a lot of positive feedback from the OpsMgr Community and Microsoft as well. The blog gets many regular visitors from all over the world: on an average weekday it gets 350+ visitors, and this number is still growing. The blog postings are a mix of call outs like new/updated MPs/Hotfixes being available but also postings about how to address certain issues, informative ones about OpsMgr processes, series about certain aspects of OpsMgr and the like. And still there is much I want to blog about. So many ideas. But simply not enough time.

However, with the months going by and Microsoft getting up to steam with all the other System Center products, I foresee a future where my blog will not only cover OpsMgr but also other SC products. The years 2010 and 2011 are going to be very exciting years for all SC products. Many positive (BIG) changes with the SC Products are going to happen. And with the months going by this blog will be reflecting many of those changes. How this new format is going to look? To be frankly, I do not know. The future, and feedback from the community, will tell.

There is much to do and to learn, thus much to blog about. THANK YOU ALL FOR TAKING TIME TO VISIT THIS BLOG AND YOUR COMMENTS. We’ll meet again with the all other future postings to come. Since I must say, blogging is addictive. Very addictive I must add. And, last but not least: keep me sharp!