Hi to everybody. I am happy to interview Edoardo Benussi for our Forum Ninjas Blog. Edoardo has been one of the first moderators that I have known when I started writing on the TechNet Italia Forum.

Edoardo Benussi is Microsoft Community Contributor (MCC) and Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) since 2004 for Networking, Management Infrastructure - Systems Administration, Directory Services and last Enterprise Mobility. A good slalom 🙂

Here are some of Edoardo’s Statistics:

• 38,420 Recognition Points
• 2,361 Answered Questions
• 1,542 Helpful Posts
• 12,605 Replies
• Total of 28 Medals
  

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

I’m Edoardo Benussi, living near Milan in Italy, degree in Statistics and Actuarial Science.

I’m an insurer, co-owner of an insurance broker firm in which I’m board member and CIO.

I deal with computer science at 360 degrees: from networking to Windows domain, Active Directory and group policies, from security to configuration of services (IIS and other web server, SQL Server and other RDBMS, ISA and Forefront TMG), from development of applications (mainly in .net but not limited to) to project and creation of infrastructure to host them in cloud or on premises.

As Microsoft products user, I started to help users of Microsoft products in 2002 in usenet newsgroups, became a Microsoft MVP in 2004 with specialization in “Networking”, then in 2008 my specialization changed in “Management Infrastructure”, in 2013 changed in “Directory Services” and in 2016 in “Enterprise Mobility”.

What are your big projects right now?

I'm working on some e-commerce sites published in Azure, on a portal for Italian agencies of a multinational insurance company and some web solutions for my business.

Of course I never disregard the TechNet and MSDN Forums where I try to be always present.

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

I participate actively in following forums: MSDN Forum - “Development in Azure”, TechNet Forum - “Windows Server 2012, Windows Server 2008 and previous versions”, “Active Directory (AD) and Group Policy (GPO)”, “Hyper-V and Virtualization Technologies”, “System Center and Private Cloud”, “Windows Server Essential and Small Business Server”, “Security, antivirus and antimalware tools, identity management”, “SQL Server, Azure SQL Database”

In all forums listed above I’m a moderator.

In what other sites and communities do you contribute your technical knowledge?

I spread often my technical knowledge even in social networks as Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook other than in my personal blog.

Sometimes I participate to offline events as “ATE - Ask The Expert”.

What are 2-3 of your favorite forum threads?

There is not a thread that is my favorite thread. I prefer threads in which there is technical problem to solve. I dislike threads in which somenone ask suggestions about hardware configuration.

On what forum threads have you collaborated with other community members to help answer a question?

Sometimes I collaborate with my fellows MVP in Answer Forums specially when it’s speaking about security, certificates, cryptography, Internet Explorer and other browsers, web applications an so on.

Do you have any comments for product groups about the MSDN and TechNet Forums that they moderate?

I think that sometimes there is too much in a hurry to mark an answer without actually deepen the problem or verify that the response has really solved the problem.

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

People asking question in forums have to try to explain your problem in more detail as possible describing the whole scenario with the utmost thoroughness. Do not attempt to provide partial solutions hoping someone complete your suggestion. Sometimes the solution lies in a direction that you would never have imagined then let yourself be accompanied by experts.

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

Frequently, who asks questions in forums does not say or cannot find the correct information to be provided. Who wants to help other users should not be afraid to ask further questions, too many questions, so as to fully understand the problem before giving an answer.

Do you have any tips for moderators of MSDN/TechNet Forums?

Be patient and try to understand that anyone who is in forums to ask for help has not your competence and knowledge, therefore, patience, courtesy and kindness are good travel companions. Otherwise there is no one forces you to answer or to make the forum moderators.

How has been your Microsoft MVP journey and what hard work you did to become MVP?

It was a wonderful journey in which I could learn a lot especially in groped to help others by solving their problems. I hope I have enriched the knowledge of others at least as much as has been enriched mine. It was not at all hard work, it has been and still is a pleasure.

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Edoardo, thanks for your contributions to the MSDN and TechNet forums! It's been great to get know you better.

Antonino Bambino
aka NinoRCTN