Blogs  >  Interview with a Forum Ninja and MVP – Alessandro Vannini

Interview with a Forum Ninja and MVP – Alessandro Vannini

Interview with a Forum Ninja and MVP – Alessandro Vannini


Forum Ninjas Blog

Hi everybody. I am happy to interview Alessandro Vannini for our Forum Ninjas Blog. Alessandro is one of the moderator of TechNet Italia Forum.
Alessandro is Microsoft Community Contributor (MCC) and Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for "Cloud and Datacenter Management" and "Office Servers and Services"
Here are some of Alessandro’s Statistics:

  • 26,875 Recognition Points
  • 998       Helpful Posts
  • 6,738    Replies
  • Total of 26 Medals

Who are you, where are you, and what do you do? What are your specialty technologies?

My name is Alessandro Vannini, I’m from Ferrara (Italy) and I’m specialized in Microsoft’s Servers, Clients and Exchange technologies. My hobbies are Technology and Karate that I play since I was 6 years old. Actually I’m 5th degree Black Belt Master and I train people to fight in my Dojo since 2003. In the remaining free time I like to search for new technologies or hi tech-items to use like drones and similar stuff. Kickstarter is my favourite site.

What Microsoft Forums do you participate in? What different roles do you play?

I’m a Moderator since 2011 of Windows Server, Windows 10 and Exchange forums, I’ve 4 MVP Awards, this year in 2 different categories: Cloud and Datacenter Management and Office Servers and Services.

What are your big projects right now?

Actually, I’m trying to forge Ethical Hacking with Microsoft Technologies. Recently I achieved this important certification by EC Council and what I’m trying to do is sensibilizing companies that use Microsoft Technologies as first technology to secure their networks implementing security measures using Microsoft’s security policies through penetration testing of Ethical Hacking.

What are your favorite forum threads you’ve contributed on?

I like to contribute every time I can, threads that in the past have given me more satisfaction are those in which there where more than a single problem to solve, so you’ve to analyze every single point of the network for having the solution.

Do you have any tips for people asking questions on MSDN/TechNet Forums?

I think people that come on forum asking for a solution must be much more precise explaining the issue and the structure and not last what they’ve done to solve before approaching on the forum. This because even more often we’ve to ask for every step before starting to solve, this takes time, and time is life in a sysadmin work.

Do you have any tips for people answering questions on MSDN/TechNet Forums?

In my opinion who comes on a forum searching a quick response need a quick response. This means, speedy and shorty. This is not possible every time, but I find useless posting a solution that include 20 pages to read before having the goal. Yes, you’ve to know what you are doing, but not knowing in deep the technology, for that you need training and learning and TechNet is not the right place. I ask for a solution, and who answers have to give it the best and quick solution possible. This is only my opinion naturally and it can be wrong, but it is what i want if I come on a forum asking for help and my server is down: quickness.

 

Thanks to Alessandro for contributions to the TechNet forums! It’s been great to get know you better.

Antonino Bambino
aka NinoRCTN

Comments (2)

  1. pituach says:

    Great interview NinoRCTN

    But Alessandro, there are so much more I would like to hear, and I am sure others will love to know. For example most people so not familiar with the International Council of E-Commerce Consultants. Most people in the field, which I am familiar with, are working under alias names (anonymous nickname), the EC-Council is different in that approach. It’s great to hear more about your project (forge Ethical Hacking with Microsoft Technologies). I would love to hear more details 🙂 . what exactly are you doing, which Technologies are you testing (by the way, have you seen my latest posts regarding how to crack the new security features in SQL Server 2016?)

    1. Alessandro Vannini says:

      Hi Pituach, thank you for interesting in my interview. Actually my goal is triying to sensibilize sysadmins that work on Microsoft Networks about vulnerabilities and network security ot their environments. Using CEH techniques of attak (so I’ve been authorized by CEO of the company) i perform blackbox attaks on networks from outside and from inside if I’m able to use social engineering to have a pass. Ad you know MS if misconfigured offers a great “Park of play” for that. Naturally when I perform tests I’ve my anonymous nickname that I own since 1997 ;-). I’m a syadmin, not a developer so Technologies i target are Servers and Clients sysops and network infrastructures.