I have been quiet for quite some time and I apologize to both of my readers for going dark.   I have moved on to a new position as Product Unit Manager of the MSN Internet Access Engineering team, this is an exciting new role but I'll talk about it more when I start posting to my new blog at http://spaces.msn.com/members/msniaandme/.  The purpose of this entry is to close the book on the last 4 years of my career.  

What an incredible 4 years it was.  When I joined what was then called the Windows Integrated Scenarios Test team our vision was that we would replicate customer environments (to the server) and run thousands of test cases against those environments.  While we were somewhat successful at this we quickly learned that there was a better way to achieve the same or even more significant results.  We changed our name to the Enterprise Engineering Center (EEC), built a big beautiful lab and began to focus on working closely with customers by bringing them to Redmond.  When customers came to the EEC  we built replicas of their environment and tested side by side with them.  This was a great success for the EEC and Microsoft as we learned so much from our customers.  Customers also benefited because they were able to work through deployment snags and get help from the people who designed and built our products.  The EEC is as strong as ever and will continue to be for a long time to come.

This entry however is really an opportunity for me to thank our customers for teaching me so much.  Not only did I learn a ton about our products and how they are deployed but working closely with customers also changed my whole outlook on what it takes to develop a product that meet customers needs.  I plan to take these learnings with me to my new group and deliver products and services that not only satisfy but delight our customers!  So to the hundreds of customers that have visited us over the past couple of years,  THANKS!

So Long!