For those of you who followed my blog on TechNet may already have know the news and you can tune me out… or should you?

If you are only following me here on my bhargavs.com blog, This may be news to you.

Leaving Microsoft isn’t a decision you can make easily. Working for such a company is a privilege. Working with such an amazing talent everyday is something to die for. Working to produce, deploy and support such amazing products is something to be proud of.

So, why am I leaving?

I have been working on design/deploy/manage/support numerous technologies since I started my career about 17 years ago. While in different flavors, I kept eating the same ice-cream. Not that I don’t like ice-cream. I totally LOVE it.

However, it is time for me to do something else. Something different and new. Something that I wasn’t planning for. Something I didn’t think of actively. But pleasant accidents are part of my life. Becoming IT Pro when by education I am a civil engineer was by accident, not planning. Leaving my home in India to face huge unknown and a new culture in US, wasn’t planned but happened in sudden succession of chain of events, pleasant accident and no planning!

And now this. This new role that came along. New role that is taking me into a huge unknown. New challenges that will take me completely out of my comfort zone. And I was taught in my first week at Microsoft that in order to grow, you must look for challenges that take you out of your comfort zone. I guess I took it to heart!

Microsoft has taught me a lot, given me a lot, cared for me a lot and that will never be forgotten. Leaving such a company earns me a label of defector, traitor and all fun names you can call it. However, I have yet to find one person in Microsoft who actually was serious when they said that. Everyone wished me well, offered to stay in touch and reach out if I ever needed their assistance or help. That’s the spirit of Microsoft.

Next natural question in your mind is, where am I going? Unlike popular belief that most Microsoft employees leave for major competitors, or start their own business, for me, it’s not the case. I am going to work for a company that is my type. Young, energetic, agile. They have a good product that has huge potential. The product that I am hoping that in my role I will be able to make even more AWESOME. Even more successful. Even more respected. The company I am now working for is KEMP.

You may be asking next, if I am going to continue working on my passion, Exchange and Lync. The answer is yes! I will continue my lifelong learning of such amazing products and will continue to contribute to community through my personal blog here, as well as the User Group I started few years ago in Philadelphia area: http://www.phillyexug.org. I will continue delivering training at MCM Exchange rotations. And since I am also a certified trainer (MCT), you may see me delivering MOC training sporadically.

I also invite you to connect with me on twitter @bhargavs and linked in at http://www.linkedin.com/in/bhargavshukla as well as Kemp on twitter @kemptech and on facebook.