What's the deal with this blog?

This blog focuses on the Microsoft System Center suite of products. Observations, tips, notes, bugs, etc etc, all coming to you from my experiences out in the field with these products. As with any blog, take what I say with a grain of salt, I'm not a Microsoft engineer and as such the stuff that I post is in no way official.

A little about me...

I'm currently working with a Microsoft Gold certified consulting firm. My focus is primarily enterprise management via a number of vehicles. I've been working with application packaging and automated deployment solutions for about 5 years now. I've worked with all versions of SMS/SCCM, Managesoft, and GPO deployments, and I've dabbled in Zenworks, Unicenter, and Tivoli. Of recent I have taken up OpsMgr 2007 and have worked numerous implementations with many more on the horizon.

So why write this blog?

I'm writing this for several reasons actually. First off, I recently had a conversation with a Microsoft engineer in which he confirmed what many of you probably have already observed: The approach for getting info out to the technical community is shifting away from the traditional approach of KB articles for every nuance and more towards a more viral approach via blogs, news groups, and partner websites. Some may view this approach with skepticism, however I feel that this is very effective if you consider how the SCCM and OpsMgr products are designed.

With both, Microsoft has provided flexible and customizable solutions that can be utilized in many different ways. For almost any desired outcome with either product there are numerous ways to get there. As a vendor you can support this in several ways. The way that Microsoft has chosen works well...as long as the MS engineers and developers are actively involved in the community - which they are. There is a System Center blog as well as blogs from individual MS engineers. Further, there is a remarkably high number of MS engineers/developers that frequent the newsgroups and participate in the solving of problems posted there. There have been many cases in which problems have identified in the newsgroups, and the developers that wrote them saw the post and posted an official update as a result.

So. What does all that mean? Why is this blog here? I'm writing this both to document what I see out there, and hopefully in the process help others in the same boat. Half the struggle with OpsMgr/SCCM implementations is finding the answers to the questions that you are asking, that others have already asked, that have already been resolved. Hopefully I can make life easier for others in my shoes.