Farewell and Thank You

It’s not often that a lowly editor like me gets the opportunity to work on a website like the Petri IT Knowledgebase, so when given the opportunity to work on such well-regarded website years ago, I jumped at the chance. So it’s with a very mixed set of feelings that I’m announcing my resignation from Petri, as I’ll be joining Hewlett Packard Enterprise as a Content Marketing Strategy Manager in the HP Corporate Marketing Group, where I’ll focus on the HP Technology Services division.

I’ve had the honor of working at the Petri IT Knowledgebase for a little over three years, and in that time I’ve worked with dozens of authors, talked to a plethora of vendors, and spent lots of time with some truly excellent colleagues and co-workers. One of my favorite parts of the job was getting the chance to meet, speak with, email, and interact with hundreds of Petri readers, whose insights, commentary, jokes, and feedback have proven to be invaluable. I’d like to thank all of you took the time out of your busy schedules to reach out to me over the years, and I’ve always enjoyed reading your emails, phone messages, Tweets, and Facebook messages. You’ve helped make me smarter and wiser about the world of IT — and believe me, I could use the help — and for that I’m grateful.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve been at an IT trade show or other industry event where I’ve introduced myself to someone in marketing or in a non-technical role, and someone at the back of the booth or just within earshot — an onsite system administrator, or someone with an IT background tasked with demonstrating products — has rushed forward to explain how much they love the Petri site, and how our how-to content has helped them out of a jam with a thorny problem with Active Directory or Windows Server. It’s a testament to the great content that Daniel Petri and our other authors have produced over the years.

My good colleague (and Petri IT Knowledgebase Senior Editor) Blair Greenwood will be temporarily taking over the day-to-day editorial operations here at Petri, so I’d encourage you to reach out to Blair with any questions related to our continuing editorial coverage.

I’ve also had the distinct pleasure of working with some remarkable authors, contributors, and Contributing Editors here at Petri over the years, including Jeff Hicks, Aidan Finn, Russell Smith, J. Peter Bruzzese, David Davis, Stuart Burns, Trevor Pott, Jonathan Hassell, Sean Deuby, Karen Forster, Darren Mar-Elia, Simon Bisson, Mary Branscombe, Paul Thurrott, Michael Simmons, Peter DeTender, Theresa Miller, Phoummala Schmitt, and Melissa Palmer, to name a few. It was also a treat to get the chance to meet (and work with) the remarkable Daniel Petri, the original creator of this wonderful IT resource for system administrators and a legend in the IT industry.

And last and certainly not least, I’ve been blessed to work with such fantastic colleagues and co-workers as Blair Greenwood, Tim Speciale, Maria Plasterer, Sean McCabe, Paul Thurrott, Rebecca Hunt, Nicole Sisson, and George Coll. You will all be missed!

The aforementioned team of people have led the Petri IT Knowledgebase through an amazing transformation over the last year, including changing our domain name, launching an all-new site design, adding Thurrott.com to the Blue Whale Web family of publications, and rolling out a host of other new initiatives that have made the Petri site what is today.

If you’d like to keep in touch with me after my departure, I’d love to hear from. You can reach out to me on Twitter (@jeffjames3), or get in touch via my About.me page.

All the best,

– Jeff James