Eugenio’s Next Adventure

The Symposium is now behind us and I’m very pleased at how it went. Overall feedback was very positive! Even the weather seemed to have joined us, with unusual sunny days. Thanks very much again to everyone who joined us in Redmond, speakers and attendees. We certainly hope you come again next year. Planning for the next Symposium has already started. Stay tuned!

The event was of a special importance to me, as it was my last contribution to p&p and to Microsoft. The time has come for me to do something different.

Microsoft in general, and p&p in particular have been the experience of my life and the best place I’ve ever worked for. I would undoubtedly do exactly the same if I went back 12 years and was presented with the opportunity to join Microsoft again. It has been very much like a home, and I will miss it a lot.

I’ve been privileged to meet and work with exceptional people. I’ve traveled the world. I’ve worked on really great projects. Working for Microsoft is demanding, but it’s a very generous company on many dimensions, and I’ve grown an all aspects. Thanks Microsoft and thanks to my many colleagues, mentors and friends!

In everything I’ve done, my personal guiding principle has always been to “leave behind something better than what I’ve received”. I have had many failures, but also many successes, and I hope I have lived up to that principle.

So what’s next?

I want to put all that experience and learning into action, by starting a new company. I’m joining QraftLabs with a pretty amazing group of friends. As many of you know, I’ve invested quite a bit of my time in the last few years into cloud computing and identity management. Our first product will be in the identity management space and it is called “Auth0” (AuthZero). Our goal is to dramatically simplify identity federation for cloud apps. Especially for those that are selling their services to enterprises with their own identity infrastructure (like AD) or using Office 365.

Identity Federation is still hard. We published two guides on it, but there are still quite a few moving parts and my experience is that there’s room for improvement. So that is what we will be focusing on first. (Remember my “IssueTracker” series 4 years ago? wow…4 years…)

And you might think: wait! Isn’t Windows Azure Active Directory supposed to address that? Sure, it is an important part of the equation (and we will fully support it), but there are other aspects and challenges we want to address also, that complement WAAD: other protocols, a wider variety of identity providers, tools for troubleshooting, etc.

Obviously, this blog will freeze with this last post. It might or might not stay, I don’t know. If you want to continue to follow me and the next chapter of my journey go to: https://blog.qraftlabs.com and/or https://blog.auth0.com

Thanks again!

Eugenio

Comments

• Anonymous
  February 01, 2013
  Good luck Eugenio! Microsoft, patterns & practices and most importantly thousands of customers (and millions of?) developers have a lot to thank you for your work over the years. Having had the chance to work with you directly in p&p since its roots, I believe your focus on delighting customers, establishing meaningful relationships and pragmatically doing "what's right" that helped it grow will be invaluable assets to your new venture.

• Anonymous
  February 01, 2013
  Well put, EdJez. Cannot agree more! Eugenio, you are one of the true customer advocates who have made a difference for our customers, our partners and us, your colleagues. Your legacy in p&p, Microsoft and beyond will live on. All the best with the QraftLabs adventure! Look forward to seeing your picture on the cover of the FastCompany magazine!