Over the weekend, the DPM community lost one of its best – Ruud Baars.

While you may be familiar with some of the DPM voices and faces, Ruud was one of the quiet and sometimes unseen, true innovators of how to deploy DPM in the real world.

• If you received answers to questions in the DPM newsgroups or forums, those answers often came from Ruud – either directly, or by the people that he has mentored over the years.
• If you have used the advanced PowerShell scripts to manage DPM, they were often from Ruud.
• If you got pragmatic answers from your Microsoft account team on the specifics of sizing and architecture before the DPM storage calculators, those answers probably came from Ruud through our internal DLs that he constantly monitored to help others.

Ruud worked at Microsoft for more than 10 years. He started his career in Product Support and joined Services five years ago. His last position was that of Senior Consultant in the Core IO team. Ruud was a very passionate and driven person -- to customers and colleagues alike, dedicated to Microsoft technologies and its development. We will remember Ruud for his valued critical and optimistic attitude and his unique, characteristic, concise and powerful way of communication.

Ruud was one of the first Microsoft consultants to really pick DPM up. In the early days of DPM v1 (2006), there was a lot of excitement around the potential of Microsoft delivering its own backup solution. But after the anticipation, and the evangelism, and the proofs of concept, it was early experts like Ruud who actually helped customers successful with their first deployments. And as the DPM communities grew, both internal to Microsoft and externally with customers, partners and industry SMEs/MVPs, it was often Ruud who acted as the ‘deployment guru’ that we all learned from – not just about DPM itself, but storage, backup/recovery, and service.

Three months ago, Ruud was diagnosed with lung cancer, which overtook him last weekend. He leaves behind his wife, Han, and daughter Kimberley – as well as a company and community that are indebted to his knowledge and service.

Personally, I will always be grateful for the passion and expertise that he brought to the DPM community.  But what I will remember the most is how that passion and expertise was delivered with the humility of a true gentleman.

Rest in Peace, Ruud.

This is a great example why it is cool to have a phone that is integrated with Xbox Live – you can have a continuous gaming experience across devices!

Last night, the Marketplace released two games:

Full House Poker for Xbox 360 (Live Arcade)

Full House Poker for Windows Phone

Okay, I might be a little bias because I enjoy Texas Hold’em … and because I am coincidentally going to Las Vegas next week (for work).  But I still think this is cool because as a gamer, I sometimes get started in a game at home (on my Xbox360) but then am travelling or otherwise not able to play at home, so I play on my phone.

No, this isn’t a completely unified experience, but it shows the potential – as some of the rewards and status earned in one game will be reflected in the other.

Here is the write-up on the game:

Test your Texas Hold 'Em prowess in Standard Games and Tournaments against a variety of Full House Poker pros. Each pro has unique skills and weaknesses, so watch them closely to learn how to take them down. Earn experience and level up to unlock cool ways to customize your poker experience.

Reap the rewards of your poker play on both Windows Phone 7 and Xbox 360. Build up your bankroll on your phone, and you'll have that stack of chips waiting for you the next time you play Full House Poker on Xbox 360. Level up on Xbox 360, and get the respect you've earned the next time you play on your phone. Levels, XP, chips, stats, and unlockables are all shared across both devices.

It's Full House Poker on Windows Phone 7. So let's deal the cards already!

(Windows Phone 7 and Xbox 360 versions of Full House Poker sold separately.)

I’ve already downloaded it for my Windows Phone and will be trying out the Xbox 360 version tonight.   So, if you see me working on my phone next week at the Microsoft Management Summit, don’t assume I am doing email.

As always, thanks for reading.

If you are coming to the Microsoft Management Summit 2011 next week, you have some great opportunities to learn more about Data Protection Manager.

We have four breakout sessions with DPM.  I will be at all four talks but am sharing the stage this year with some great SMEs from the DPM community, including:

BB16	Protecting the Datacenter with DPM 2010
BB17	Protecting Client Data with DPM 2010	by Orin Thomas, one of my favorite MVPs, and including a view of MS IT’s own use of DPM by Young Kwon
BB36	The Datacenter is down, let’s Restore	by more of my favorite MVPs on the planet, Mike Resseler & David Allen
BB18	First Look at DPM 2012	co-delivered by Asim Mitra, from the DPM product team

YEP !!   Like many of the other System Center products, we will be delivering a 2012 release – and this is your first chance to see the features.  

Within the Microsoft Expo area of the show floor, come by the DPM booth and meet some of the DPM product team and some of our DPM MVP’s.

I will be around all week, giving/supporting sessions, handing out a few books and always happy to share some coffee and talk about backup, restore and disaster recovery.  

If I am not in the DPM booth, you might find me at the i365 booth (# 538) with my friends who make a DPM Appliance.   If you happened to score an invite to their VIP event on Tuesday night, count on finding me there, too !

There is a lot to see this year on DPM, so if you are coming to MMS – come find me !

As always, thanks for reading.

If you are Microsoft Partner, I’d like to invite you to an upcoming webcast on March 15 at 9AM Pacific time.

Go to your Microsoft Partner portal and look up MGT116AL which talks about helping System Center customers with their Backup and Recovery needs. 

In this talk, i365 will be talking about their DPM Appliance and also introducing one of their partners, which has some great news for to help you as you deliver System Center to your customers.  I am a fan of the i365 DPM appliance, and you can read my earlier blog post (here), as well as a review of i365’s DPM appliance by ESG.

As always, thanks for reading (and watching).