My name is Michel de Rooij and I’m an Consultant focused on Exchange and Unified Communications related technologies mainly in – but not limited to – the Microsoft domain. I’m currently employed as a consultant at Conclusion FIT.

History
After my bachelor study Computer Science in 1994, I started my professional career as a 3/4GL developer (Clipper or Powerbuilder anyone?). I quickly became interested in infrastructure technology and after making the switch from developer to infrastructure, I got to work for some interesting customers in equally interesting projects where I gathered the necessary work experience.

I have participated in many projects that range from client migrations to designing standard desktops and servers, but my current field of work is mainly Exchange related. My background as developer is a real asset, especially after the introduction of PowerShell, as most Exchange projects require a certain amount of scripting or coding skills. If it’s not for a project, then it can also be about automating tasks or making tasks less prone to error.

Social Media
When I have time I’m participating in the Microsoft Technet forums. You can also follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/mderooij, check out my Facebook here. You can also hit me up on LinkedIn at http://nl.linkedin.com/in/michelderooij. If you got questions, do not hesitate using the contact form from the top menu to send them to me.

Certifications
I currently hold the following IT related certifications (older certifications condensed):

• MCSE: Messaging on Exchange Server 2013
• MCSA: Windows Server 2012
• MCTS: Office Communications Server 2007, Configuration
• MCTS: Microsoft Exchange Server 2010, Configuration
• MCITP: Enterprise Messaging Administrator 2010
• MCTS: Windows Server 2008 Active Directory: Configuration
• MCTS: Windows Server 2008 Applications Infrastructure: Configuration
• MCTS: Windows Server 2008 Network Infrastructure: Configuration
• MCITP: Designing/Deploying Messaging Solutions w/Microsoft Exchange 2010
• MCTS: Microsoft Exchange Server 2007: Configuration
• MCSE: Messaging 2000/2003
• MCSE: NT4/W2000/W2003
• MCSE + Internet
• Prince2 Foundation
• ITIL Essentials

You can view my virtual MCP business card here.

Philip, Francis and Olrik?
When looking at the names used in my examples, you’ll notice I often use the names of Philip Mortimer, Francis Blake or Olrik. For those examples I could have picked any names, but I thought it was nice to borrow them from the incredible comics series Blake and Mortimer created by the late Edgar P. Jabobs, starring Philip Mortimer, Francis Blake and their nemesis Colonel Olrik.

About EighTwOne
To create more visibility I started this professional blog early November, 2009. Most posts focus on Exchange or Unified Communications related technologies like Active Directory, PowerShell, Lync, ISA/TMG, FPE/FSE or messaging in general.

Oh yeah, what’s with this name, EighTwOne. Well, I had to make up a name as all the variations on mistermail, exchangeguy and deliverydude were already taken. So, used the original RFC number for SMTP, which was RFC 821, wrote that fully: eight two one. Then I noticed matching letters between words, so I left them out keeping only 1 letter in uppercase (for readability). So, RFC 821 became eight two one became EightTwoOne and ended up in EighTwOne. Simple as that.