The news just came in from Redmond: I’m a Microsoft MVP again for 2009! I felt great last year, when I received the award for the first time, but this is even better since I now really understand what it’s all about and how I can use it to help the enterprise storage community!
Reading this blog, one might think that I’m some kind of Apple fanboy. Read some of my Windows storage posts and you might think I was a Microsoft apologist. Talk to me for ten minutes and you’ll see that I’m a long-time UNIX nerd. Or maybe I’m an EMC bigot. Or Sun. Or NetApp.
The truth is I’m not really an anything fanboy: I’m a fan of what works. Mac OS X has become my default desktop OS because it works for me, especially its UNIX underpinnings. Windows Server has awesome storage features. EMC and NetApp make some good storage kit. So do Sun and HDS. See the trend here?
I’m neither a Microsoft apologist or hater. They do some good stuff and they do some bad stuff. I’ll go out of my way to evalgelize the good (the iSCSI initiator, MPIO, VSS, PowerShell, FSRM, Windows Server and Storage Server 2008 R2) and I’ll let other people argue about the rest. And Microsoft folks are apparently wise enough to look past the MacBook and iPhone while I’m on campus!
So I sincerely thank Microsoft for the second MVP award. The access it has given me over the last year has been a huge help to me professionally and to those I work with. I look forward to another productive year!
PS: If you didn’t know, Dustin Pedroia is the best all around baseball player out there. He gives his all for my beloved Red Sox every day, and got his own MVP award last year as thanks!