How Windows Server helped your career?

[Vinicius Apolinario]

Hello from sunny Orlando, FL!

We're here working on the final details for Microsoft Ignite 2018. During the week, we're hosting a party for the Windows Server community, and we'd like to know how Windows Server helped your career!

We know most of you have been working with Windows Server for years - if not decades - and we'd like to have your story showcased in the party. Please leave a short comment (1-2 phrases) in this post, so we can have in the monitors during the party! Even if you're not there with us, we want to show our appreciation to the support you dedicated to Windows Server over the years!

See you there!

Vinicius.

@vrapolinario

[#2]

I bet my career on Windows Server way back in the NT 4 days and have stuck with it to present day WS2019. Haven’t looked back. :)

[#3]

First MCSE in the 90’s with NT4 right through to multiple MCSEs and still teaching Server Infrastructure courses alongside Windows 10, SharePoint and System Center. Eventually got MCSE Cloud Infrastructure and heavy Azure. Couldn’t have done it without Windows Server deep background all these years.

[#4]

Inherited a broken website on IIS4 in college, fixed the asp pages for the CompSci department, and have never stopped learning Windows Server enhancements ever since. One could say Windows Server releases have been my career building blocks!

[#5]

I owe my career to Windows Server.

I started as a junior admin years ago.

I contributed my first substantial code change (that was more than just a bug fix) to the Windows Server code base this year. The change was small but it marks an enormous personal milestone for me.

[#6]

I've been administering servers since Windows NT4.0.   Got my MCSE in Windows 2000 and haven't looked back since then.  I've touched about every technology that Windows Server has to offer.  I even still have a Windows Server 2003 Pen back when it was launched :)

[#7]

My first Azure deployment involved migrating an entire Government agency into Azure. (stay with me, this is totally WinSRV related) - The customer had a mix of OS versions from 2k3 x86 to 2k12R2 - My long term support of NT4 up to 2k12R2 really helped me to understand the nuances of each OS server version at a very low level, as with the earlier versions you really needed to know what was under the hood (shout out to anyone that has built a cluster using 2k3 server for example).

The customer had a large amount of legacy but still core production systems that could not be re-homed, so I had to move a number of 2k3 VMs to Azure from VMWare. It was a challenge, there was a lot of swearing, crying and frustration (mostly from me because I was trying to do something completely unsupported)  but I managed to shoehorn in the Hyper-V integration drivers (MSI Installer was not supported for this OS version so I extracted the DLL's and .SYS files, copied them to the relevant locations and crafted the registry entries for each virtualised driver and then created the "Fake" devices in device manager) and then use Azure Site Recovery to replicate and migrate the VMs into Azure.

To my delight the VM's came up healthy and no BSOD in site, this really highlighted how robust the Windows Server platform is. Even back in the 2k3 generation days, I had taken a Server that was not designed to run as a VM, let alone on a cloud platform into Azure.

Now my career extends into all things Azure as a technical evangelist who guides customers through their journey to the cloud, but I still have my roots in place. Even though I strongly promote PaaS services to my customers I know that behind the scenes there is a Windows Server hosting most of those services and it makes me Smile :D

[#8]

I build our companies first AD Forest with Windows Server 2000 back in the day, an now we have Azure AD authenticating thousands of logins a day.

Thanks to my investment and trust in Windows Server it has served my career for 20+ years , and bringing value to our company on a daily basis.

[#9]

My NT4 MCSE, which I earned after taking classes for nearly 6 months in the evenings, helped me get my first major raise, in addition to helping me move from the HelpDesk to the Systems team.

[#10]

Hi!
My first version Windows NT 4.0 with applications installed SQL Server 7.0 and Power Builder for investigations.
Excelent integration.
Next, attende Launch of Windows Server 2003 in Lima, Perú (May 5th, 2003). Starting the new era .Net.

[#11]

I used to have an OS/2 shirt that said "Windows NT - Nice Try"

You see which one is still around, right?

[#12]

As a Unix developer in the 90s, I built an FTP server for Windows simply to avoid having to trudge up and down the hallway with a floppy disk in my hand every time I wanted to take new code from the version control system (DOS-based) to the Sun workstation.
Then it became fun to point out to my Unix colleagues that I was running reliable Internet server software on a Windows machine, and finally it just seemed notably easier to write reliable software for Windows than for Unix.

I've been Windows-centric ever since, and was able to be a work-from-home dad as a result.

[#13]

I think I remember the response was always "OS/2 - half an operating system for half a computer". [For the youngsters: The OS/2 was an IBM OS, and their PC at the time was the "PS/2"]

[#14]

I must be showing my age now, but my first experiences were with Windows NT 3.51 over 20 years ago. 

I've administered every version since, seeing features and user interfaces come and go. The OS has underpinned my career and without it I probably wouldn't have followed the path that it has.

I'm at ignite this year for the first time and am looking forward to seeing the new features.

Paul

[#15]

Many years of studying Windows Server. Each version released a new feature made me more excited!

[#16]

Started with NT with 3.5, MCSE with 4.0 and have been supporting schools using Windows Server since 2000. My whole career has been Windows based.