Or shall I say, “Welcome, Brian” to the world of blogging.  This is the beginning of my journey that so many others have taken before me.  I am starting a blog.  I am an IT professional in the DC area, specializing in data center operations and virtual infrastructure (and just about everything else that sys admins do!).  Many times I have thought about starting a blog focusing on the challenges and observations I come across during my days as an IT admin, especially those ideas having to do with virtual infrastructure.  I am a huge VMware fan, have used their enterprise products since Dec 2007, architected and built the current virtual infrastructure for my employer, helped them virtualize close to 70% of our environment within 3 years, achieved both VCP 3 and 4 certifications, and am now missing out on the biggest virtual event of the year and of the universe right now – VMworld 2011!  I will confess that my missing this event is acting as the catalyst that finally motivated me to start this blog.  I needed to channel my “missing VMworld blues” into something productive for myself and that maybe one day can be productive for the greater virtual and cloud community.  As for now, this will be my own little repository to let my own thoughts flow, to use as a reference and to help me articulate the concepts that I come across on a daily basis.

On a very personal and almost completely separate note, the reason I am missing VMworld this year is that my brother-in-law, my wife’s brother, died unexpectedly and very tragically one week before the conference.  This has been a terribly rough time for my family, a time for grieving and seeking comfort in each other’s presence.  My brother-in-law, Matt Griffith, was an amazing husband and father.  He left behind a strong wife, two wonderful boys, 10 and 15 years, and was so devoted to his family and raising his boys to be responsible young men.  I was so touched by all the photos that we sifted through preparing for his memorial service.  The togetherness he was so committed to in his family was very obvious.  Between family trips, birthdays, sports leagues, and just hanging around the house, he had no greater love than time spent with each of his boys and his wife. What a tremendous loss for them!  My heart weeps for each of his boys, for his wife, for his parents who have lost their oldest son, and for my wife who lost her big brother.  Everything hurts right now and will for a while.  I hope to be able to honor my brother-in-law in some special way one day.