Update: I since then came back to Microsoft :)

This is long, long overdue.

As you might have noticed, a couple months ago I switched from Microsoft to Amazon. I also went from a Cloud Solutions Architect position, back to an engineering manager. There were two main drivers for that change: I wanted to get back to the product side and to management, and didn’t see that happening in Microsoft Vancouver ; and the peculiar ways of Amazon which were very aligned with how I want to function. With both fit and desire, I made the decision to jump.

My departure from Microsoft went a bit faster than expected: where I was going triggered a battery of exceptional procedures to see me out quickly ; and that is why I didn’t take the time to tell everyone before it happened.

These past two years have been absolutely awesome, and I feel like I have grown in many ways: technically, of course, with all the cool stuff in Azure and the challenges that our customers brought to me. Humanly, being in a prospective position surely put me out of my zone of comfort. Organizationally, being part of a new business unit, and the discussion around the why, the what and the how it should operate was great. And in fact, it is part of what made my realize that I wanted to get back to leadership.

I am thankful to all my colleagues. First, of course, John Cooper, who patiently listened to all my whining and nonsensical ideas. And then the “Original” West Coast Pod, with Florian Eiden, Tyler Doerksen, Fariba Haddadi, Pratheek Devaraj, and Jules Ouellette - they welcomed me and made me feel part of a team. Of course our friendly PSSs, PJ Zargarzadeh, Nick Nastic, Inga Seeleman and Stephanie Chicoine with whom we’ve worked in constructive tension. The rest of the Vancouver team, notably Barry Willis, Ed Capko, Nastassia Rachid, Mike Hilton, Anthony Chu, Corey Wong, Edsle Ozar, Rupan Shroff, Eric Fontaine, Graham Phillips, Jef King, Brendan McCabe, Martin Evers, Niall Currid, Craig Timm, John Hitsmann, John Kelly, Stewart Wilson, Andrew Boudreau and everyone else I’m forgetting. And in the “extended team”, special thanks to Kevin Harris and Ray Kao, who have helped me a lot getting where I am with Kubernetes. Thanks to Jim Bowyer ; and to Alice Gibbons for the common k8s workshops. Thanks Wouter, Diego and Mathieu for the long discussions at Ready. And to the rest of the team, way too many people to include in there, but it has been an honor.

I am thankful to all my customers, especially Todd Wilson, Shea Phillips (you guys are an inspiration), Daniel Lai, Andrew McPherson, Diljot Grewal (carry on saving us please!), Craig Shutko, Pablo Garcia, Ryan McLean, Dennis Knothe, Mark Strother, Tim To, Sarbjit Sarkaria and the team, Don Langlois, Vidhya Ranganathan, Mads Rasmusen and Cesar Lula, and more recently Nicolas Bosansky and Raphael Douyere - thanks for all the challenges you have sent my way, for the misplaced trust you have put in me, and for listening patiently to my unstoppable nonsense.

I started the dangerous exercise of thanking people and I am confident I forgot a ton of you, please see this as a limit of my intellect, and not as an intentional thing - of course I am grateful to you as well!

I hope our paths will cross again.

By any means working for Microsoft has been an honor and a privilege. This is the start of a new adventure for me, and I can only hope to progress as much as I have under your collective help.

Cheers!