* Quest adds an online extension to The Experts Conference
I missed The Experts Conference last week (formerly the Directory Experts Conference), the first time in a number of years. And, as this was the first edition of the event since Quest assimilated NetPro last fall, I was quite interested in how it went.
Evidently it was a rousing success once again. I heard from “fabulous flackette” Heidi Groshelle that attendance was up this year while Quest’s Jackson Shaw reported: “All in all, customers were happy. I don’t want to start clapping myself on the shoulder – it really isn’t my doing anyway. I felt (and still feel) that as long as Gil [Kirkpatrick] and Christine [McDermott] are happy then I am happy – and they seem happy. The customers seem happy with the transition so I am happy.”
I had the chance to talk to Gil just before the conference opened and he was excited about a new venture that Quest was launching – The Experts Community (TExCom), an online extension of the conference.
There’ll be blogs, forums and encore presentations of the conference presentations much to the relief of those of us who couldn’t get there. And, I’m very happy to say, the latest version of the Wook Lee challenge is also there. If you aren’t familiar with the challenge (see “HP’s directory diet guru speaks” and “Longhorn, Active Directory and Kermit the Frog”), each year at the conference Microsoft’s Stuart Kwan (group program manager, federated identity and security) challenges HP directory architect Wook Lee to come up with a bit of poetry, doggerel, or other rhyming work focusing on some aspect of Microsoft directory technology.
This year’s entry – to the tune of “Blue Suede Shoes” – begins:
“v.1 was the money
v.2 for the show
v.3 got you ready, now go go go
So don’t you
Recycle my new OU
You can do anything
But can you RTM ILM 2?”
See all the lyrics on The Experts Community site.
If you’re involved in Identity using Microsoft products then The Experts Community is a resource you should sign up for today.
Update: Aveksa PR pundit Dave McKee was quick to point out that last week’s newsletter about the recent agreement for Mycroft to offer SailPoint’s IdentityIQ as a managed service could also have mentioned that Mycroft has been offering Aveksa’s identity management line as a managed service since January ’08. There. I said it.
