With a bit of sadness, yesterday marked my last day of work at UMBC where I spent the past 3½ years learning lots of new things. It’s where I developed my deep interest in mass storage and furthered my Solaris knowledge even more, where I delved into kernel programming by participating in the OpenAFS project.

I learned a lot about people there, too, and how different sectors of the IT industry just have sometime inexplicably different mindsets about how to do things. Coming from the .com world to the .edu world was a bit of a whiplash event for me then having grown up around profit-based and customer service-centric organizations. I know I did leave UMBC with some lasting friendships and deeper appreciation skill sets in other people that I gave barely a thought to before.

Onward and upward, I transition to my new job and re-enter the .com world. On Monday, I start with Salesforce.com and will focus on storage (and Solaris) there. It’s an exciting opportunity for me and I’m sure I’ll be immersed in the technology and tasks I enjoy. I’ll work with a top-notch team in helping to keep SFDC at the forefront if its industry. Good times ahead!