My relationship with Exchange has been a long one full of ups and downs. But what relationship isn’t, right? Okay so yeah…. Exchange is not a warm blooded, breathing machine, but it makes me smile, makes me cry, makes me laugh, teaches me new things, laughs back at me mockingly sometimes, argues with me and is just a very large part of my life. Well, my work life anyway. No I take that back, my life. I’ve had dreams about it, think about it while I’m running, while I’m eating and while in the shower. I’m really not obsessed, I swear. It is just something that happens when you’ve been an Exchange administrator for almost 11 years.
My journey started in 2001 while taking an Exchange 2000 administration class for my associates degree. We installed it, uninstalled it, installed it, you get the picture. Then again in my Capstone class making Exchange 2000 work in an environment with Groupwise. Not an enjoyable experience by any means. Then in 2002 I was grabbed out of the classroom and given a job. I did finish my degree, but I guess I impressed someone.
This job introduced me to Exchange 5.5. Oh those were the days. So in 2004 I upgraded us to Exchange 2003, then sp2 to add mobile device functionality, then to 2007 and now most recently Exchange 2010.
I’m now working on some of the features in Exchange 2010. Therefore I dream about how I can learn more, give more and provide more to my users. I get joy out of making others jobs a littler easier. Even if it is just the way they share calendar events, respond to voicemail while working remotely across the country, or down to managing mailbox sizes for speedier response times with archiving.
You can see how Exchange would pop up on my daily radar when least expected. But, it’s okay. I do not plan on stopping here. I do believe there is a new version on the horizon calling my name.
reignstayr 