Some people have commented that I may be a little biased towards Microsoft… and whilst at times that may be a fair comment, if you look at my computers I use various open source programs, I do criticise the software giant from time to time and, let’s face it, I work for a systems integrator, primarily focusing on building solutions using Microsoft infrastructure products.

I also have a tendency to use my blog as a dumping ground for notes after I attend events, which seems to have caught the attention of the the IT professional technical evangelist team at Microsoft UK (hopefully not too annoyed at the plagiarism of their presentations). Last month, they created a new blog on the TechNet web site for articles contributed by “industry insiders” – people who don’t work for Microsoft, but who have real world experience of implementing Microsoft products, possibly even in conjunction with competitive products from other vendors – and yesterday, after a couple of weeks of discussions, Steve Lamb posted what I hope will be the first of many contributions from yours truly.