Hi everyone, welcome to my AD blog! I confess I'm a bit late to this blogging thing (and as a writer I personally abhor the word "blog"), but I've been writing in personal journals and travelogues for many years. I mean, isn't a blog just a diary you're letting someone look over your shoulder and participate in?

Let me say up front that my opinions in this blog are just that - my own - and not that of Intel's. Having the corporate Thought Police knocking on your door isn't a nice way to begin your day.

I'd also like to welcome Stephen Schullo, Michael Royer, and Nathan Casey to this blog. They're the winners of the IT Prolympics, and sound like three experienced guys. Stephen's an AD subject matter expert, Mike's a senior IT manager with major technical chops (the kind us individual contributors appreciate), and Nathan's the kind of guy I like to work with. When I have a nagging problem I know I'll get bored with, or soon see something shiny and wander off, all I have to do is get someone like Nathan interested and I know he'll gnaw on it like a terrier until it's figured out!

These guys will lend their expertise in the subject of this blog: Lessons learned in migrating one's infrastructure services to Windows 2003. But they aren't the only ones. I'm counting on you (yes you, the harried IT person stalling on your other stuff for a few minutes to read this) to add your experience for others to share. Have you been through a migration situation you wouldn't wish on anyone else? Make that happen by telling us about it. And if your migration went well, we'd love to hear about that too. (We like to encourage those fence-sitters.)

We'll kick this blog off in a few days with some of our own experiences. In the meantime, bookmark this page and we'll do our best to make it worth your time.

On a personal note, I'm pleased to say that Microsoft has seen fit to re-award me MVP status for Directory Services again for 2005. Aside from the nifty little pin, it's a privilege to be included in such a group of megacephaloids (as my friend Minasi would say).