Internal MS use of the VSTS profiler

A question that is common from folks in the field is "who's using the profiler at Microsoft".  Recently we went on a tour of alot of the groups within Microsoft to understand how they are using profiling tools and to see what we could do in the VSTS profiler to help them better.  It was really great validation to hear that most groups were already active users of the profiler.  Many of them were new to us, and they had been happily using the profiler for years now.  We have a pretty close relationship with Exchange and SQL, who use the profiler on a very regular basis to understand perf regressions and highlight areas for improvement.  We also work closely with the Windows Server folks on their needs for profiling, where we provide a large part of the solution, but there are some needs (such as kernel mode) that we don't cover.  What was surprising to us is that many of the groups in MSN, including Live Search and the Ads group, for instance, were already using the profiler widely too, and getting real gains out of it.  Recently we've started partnering with more teams in the Office org.  So you see the reach is pretty broad.

Of course there were a few asks, but it was nice to see that many of those are covered by the improvements we've made in VSTS 2008.

For me, that's a big reason to be in Developer Tools.  I love that idea that my peers' lives are made easier by tools that our team builds.  A personal thing, but one that keeps me going when the death march is on :).

John

Comments

• Anonymous
  November 02, 2007
  Ed Glas on Web Test Recorder bar not showing up. Jason Prickett on Stopping a Build -> Cancelling...