Starting a blog without an introduction and more importantly a vision and scope could be considered unacceptable to some readers. The reader deserves at least the right to know who the writer is and what content is he/she going to blog.

About me:

I started in the IT industry many years ago. I guess I was 13 years old when I decided computers were cool. Around that time I remember playing with relics such as the Acorn BBC, Vic 20 Commodore, Spectrum and the Apple IIe. Basic Language, I guess, was the de facto language at that time for kids of my age. Of course I wasn´t aware of the mainframe or Unix world hovering above me. It was only when I decided to graduate on computer science that other languages such as Pascal and C became apparent to me. At that time I remember playing with C and Pascal both in Windows and Mac. University at BU gave me an opportunity to discover both the UNIX and the mainframe world. Of course at that time Development in Computer classes where mainly achieved using UNIX and C/C++.

My firsts jobs where quite interesting. I remember I had to travel a lot around Europe. Mainly teaching and deployment of UNIX applications. I also had several interesting jobs programming in C where I also had to teach students into C. Later on I moved into Oracle and Developer 2000. Did some administration of Novell on a firm and ended up in the Military Service. Yes, in Spain at that time Military Service was compulsory unless the authorities found you were not fit enough. I was fit enough...[:)]

So how did I end up in the Microsoft World? Well, after finishing the military service I was searching for a job and I ended up in the first MSCE program that Microsoft was financing in Spain. I guess it was the predecessor of the Academy program that many years later Microsoft decided to start up. So I ended up joining Microsoft as a Support Engineer. At that time we were incharge of many products at the same time: Windows NT, SQL Server 6.5, IIS, Proxy, SNA 3.0, MTS and MSMQ. Yes life was fun at that time... [:D]

Almost two years later I found myselfmanaging people at the Support Department of Microsoft (PSS). I was in charge of the Microsoft Backoffice products for our Premier Customers in Spain. I remember those times as memorable. The team I worked with were exceptional. Issues that were coming in from customers where becoming more complex as Microsoft was developing more products. Interoperability between products both from Microsoft and third party was a reality. Even though the complexity of the issues coming in wwas growing our Support Personnel was also able to coupe with almost any issue. I admire PSS.

Almost two years later, I decided to quit people management and decided to return to the technology frontline. It was hard to take this decision... So I ended up joining the Services Departments (known as MCS at that time). Having a technical background I quickly joined the army of infrastructure Consultants. It was the time were MOF was just starting. After graduating in ITIL I found myself traveling a lot dealing with MOF and operation guides. My areas of specialization at that time was on SNA and SQL Server, although I don´t know how Iended up doing many other diverse things: AD migrations, OLAP workshops, Terminal Services architecture, Datacenter deployments, guidelines and infrastructure architectures. I guess that is why I ended up becoming an Enterprise Architecture Consultant (ESC)of an important Telco in Spain. As an ESC I was in charge not only managing the technical relationship with the customer but also helping them in defining new opportunities, roadmaps, architectures, migration plans and many other things. It was fun!

But I was missing a piece of the puzzle. As I said before I started the Computer world as a programmer when I was a kid. I was missing programming. At that time the announcement of the new era of Microsoft .NET caught my attention. I though it was the right time to jumpstart into this new world. So slowly I started moving into the development department of Microsoft Service, which is where I stand today. Most of the work I do nowadays is still very diverse. An LU0 application in C# using HIS 2004, tuning of SQL Server applications, ASP.NET applications, C# applications interchanging information with Exchange 2003 via WebDAV orSecurity audits of applications are a few of the things I deal with. However, it is the architecture world of solutions that I enjoy most. I was lucky enough toparticipate on a pilot for the Service Delivery Platform (SDP) that was developed in Spain by a few programmers using Extreme programming and Scrum as the basis. I started up helping a Partner of Microsoft in creating a proposal for the OSS/BSS platform for a Telco. Due to the knowledge gained I ended up creatingan internalSales Kit and finally a pilot requested by Microsoft Redmond. As an architecture on this project I must admit I had a blast. The project included almost all the products and technologies Microsoft had at that time. So you can imagine I ended up touching all the products too. [:)]

Vision and Scope:

As you can see I have touched many products and technologies. I guess Ienjoy learning newproducts. The more the better. That is why I decided to start this blog. I wanted to share and at the same time learn from you. My vision is to share the latest technologies coming from Microsoft that will enable you and mebe more competitive. The scope will of course be Microsoft Technologies but every now and then I will try to discuss other third party technologies that can interop with the Microsoft World. Hopefully during this journey I will be lucky enough to meet nice people who will enlighten me with knowledge and will provide me with new directions too. [:)]

Spanglish?

The blog is directed to the international audience so most of the blogs will be written in English. However, due to my affinity to Spain I will try to blog announcements related to the Spanish market too so you might encounter some spanish in between. I guess that is why I called the blog Spanglish. However, being happily married with a wonderful Chinese women I will also try to write in Chinese. No, I am kidding. [:)] I only know roughly 30 words in Chinese and I guess it is going to take some years for me to write something in Chinese. But I promise I will try, with the help of my son who is just starting to mumble a few words in Spanish and Chinese…

Please join in!