Where do you go when you want to learn about Windows Server and other Microsoft offerings? Why not go straight to the source?
We've compiled a list of some of the top Microsoft experts worth following on Twitter. A few of these names may look familiar, but we're featuring them again for good reason -- they are some of the most prolific authorities on Microsoft and its related technologies.
The Microsoft experts we're featuring run the gamut from a PowerShell MVP to a longtime tech journalist to the CEO of Microsoft. While this isn't a comprehensive list, it's something to get you started. To make things even easier, we've gathered all of these experts into a list you can follow on our Twitter account @SearchWinServer.
Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft, has been aggressively pushing the company out of its comfort zone since he took the helm from Steve Ballmer in 2014.
Nadella has been working for the company since 1992 -- he worked his way up to executive vice president of Microsoft's cloud and enterprise group before taking on the CEO role -- so you may think a longtime employee would take the safe route. And you'd be wrong.
Nadella's moves over the past two years show Microsoft won't just be a player in whatever market it is in -- it'll be a force. Rather than retreat from the hardware space after a poor reception to the initial Surface line, the company roared back in 2015 with the stellar Surface Book and Surface Pro 4. Microsoft has continued to improve its Azure cloud service as the first real contender to the formidable Amazon Web Services. Despite public criticism from Ballmer, the current CEO of Microsoft continues to drive the company's efforts with Universal Windows Platform that allows developers to write code that works on both computers and Windows phones. Under Nadella, the company has also embraced Linux and other open source projects to shed its image as a proprietary dinosaur.
"Satya Nadella is the very visible face of sweeping change and innovation within Microsoft," said Michael Stump, systems engineer and the owner of Holden Information Services. "Look at the near-seamless integration between Windows Server 2016 and Microsoft Azure. That's a direct result of his influence and recognition that hybrid cloud is no longer on the horizon. It's here."
Nadella tweets as @satyanadella and is not a heavy Twitter contributor, but he has more than 700,000 followers. He mostly retweets a few times a week but is very deliberate with his promotions. Commanding one of the world's most influential companies puts Nadella in a unique position to steer resources and comment on the world at large. He uses Twitter to point out the company's humanitarian efforts -- such as using Microsoft's people and technology to help with rebuilding efforts in disaster areas -- and the need for more advanced computer science courses in U.S. high schools. The importance of community and education is a recurring theme; take, for example, his tweet about his desire to advance Internet access into the rural areas of Africa to promote innovation and entrepreneurship.
For many years, Mark Russinovich was the outsider who found loopholes and issues with Microsoft's operating systems, then posted his findings to the company's chagrin. Russinovich also released many Windows Sysinternals utilities through the company he co-founded that helped Windows administrators do their job.
In 2006, Russinovich brought his talents to Redmond, Wash., when Microsoft acquired Winternals Software. Since then, Russinovich has risen to the role of chief technology officer for the Microsoft Azure cloud computing platform.
"It's important that I keep up with the latest trends and technologies," said Adam Bertram, an IT consultant and trainer. "By following Mark, I'm able to catch an early glimpse into what's coming down the pipe from Microsoft, particularly with Azure, which is gaining momentum."
A jack of all trades, Russinovich has written several books with a technology bent and tweets several times a week from @markrussinovich to his more than 52,000 followers. He keeps his coding chops sharp by continuing to actively update software from the Windows Sysinternals site.
Chris Ross has been working in IT for nearly 20 years and is widely recognized as a Microsoft System Center Service Manager expert. In his role as a principal consultant at Cireson, he assists organizations that are trying to get a handle on resources both on premises and in the cloud.
He is a Microsoft MVP who tweets from @SCSMUS to more than 2,000 followers. Chris is all over any news and tips that pertain to Microsoft System Center Service Manager, but he's heavily into anything that comes from Microsoft, so the tweets run from the company's data center innovations to the Windows phone. Somehow he also finds time to blog regularly at SCSM.us.
"Chris Ross is a thought leader in the IT service management space. His style is often irreverent but never irrelevant," said John Joyner, director of product development for managed services provider ClearPointe. "Chris has a low-friction, DevOps approach to solutions that has great appeal."
While a name like All About Microsoft might sound like a lofty claim, followers of Mary Jo Foley (@maryjofoley) know that it's an apt description.
Foley has been covering the tech industry for more than 30 years, most recently as a blogger at ZD Net under the aforementioned All About Microsoft mantle. Her dogged approach to covering the company make her one of the most influential and thorough Microsoft experts to follow on Twitter.
"She cultivates sources deep inside Microsoft, its partners, channel, developer and systems administration communities and even amongst its users," said Trevor Pott, an IT consultant in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. "Her network of sources is such that she has a visibility into Microsoft's plans, intentions, motivations and rationale that few -- if any -- other technology journalists do. Foley is relentless, bordering on inevitable."
Foley's activity on Twitter is formidable, averaging almost 900 tweets a month, and clearly valuable to her 115,000 followers who benefit from her deep knowledge of Microsoft's inner workings. Foley's Twitter account is ripe with news and reviews -- and occasionally a craft beer or two.
When you need to know something about PowerShell, Jeff Hicks is one of the more knowledgeable people in this area.
Hicks (@jeffhicks) is a PowerShell MVP and IT veteran with more than 25 years of experience, most of that time has been spent specializing in Microsoft server technologies. Today, Hicks is a consultant, trainer and author, and contributes to the 4SysOps and Altaro Hyper-V blogs. He also runs his own blog, The Lonely Administrator, and is a contributing editor for Petri.com.
"Hicks has deep ties within the PowerShell community, all the way up to the development team at Microsoft. He is also a teacher, so everything he posts on his Twitter account and blog has an educational benefit," said Tim Warner, an IT professional, technical trainer and author based in Nashville, Tenn.
Hicks tweets about 400 times a month to his 8,600 followers, and his updates range from new PowerShell scripts to tips and monthly reminders for admins.
Should a follower get stumped on anything PowerShell-related, Hicks is always willing to help, Warner said.
"Anybody on earth can ask him a question, and he'll answer to the best of his ability," he said.
Cutting through the noise on Twitter to find useful information isn't always easy. Windows Server admins can look to @joe_elway for some valuable nuggets on Azure, Hyper-V, System Center and hybrid cloud integration.
The @joe_elway feed, run by Hyper-V MVP Aidan Finn, offers both useful information and opinions on the good, bad and ugly of various technologies. "Sometimes you get these folks who are pumping their company but don't necessarily give a realistic view into the technology," said Eric Beehler, co-owner of Consortio Services and a TechTarget contributor. Finn, who tweets at least twice a day, mixes humor with tech advice and some personal tidbits for his nearly 7,000 Twitter followers to grab onto.
To dive deeper into subjects like such as Azure and Azure Stack -- Finn mentioned getting some hardware for Microsoft's new software component, so watch for details on that sometime soon -- Windows pros and system admins can also turn to his blog. Finn works as a technical pre-sales lead for a tech distributor in Dublin, focusing on Azure, Windows Server and Hyper-V. He's also spoken at events throughout the U.S. and Europe, including Microsoft Ignite and TechEd Europe.
If you're looking for a source of advice on Hyper-V troubleshooting, Windows storage, virtualization or PowerShell, then you should check out Didier Van Hoye's Twitter account @WorkingHardInIT. With at least a tweet each day, Van Hoye gives his 4,235 followers a little bit of everything Microsoft-related: advice, humor and workarounds.
"He's really up on the latest for storage as far as SMB Direct is concerned -- hosting virtual drives and virtual storage on NAS appliances," said Eric Beehler, co-owner of Consortio Services and a TechTarget contributor. And he's not just sharing his insights on Twitter.
His blog digs even deeper into topics such as Hyper-V troubleshooting, Windows performance monitoring tools, storage and backup. The blog also lists industry events throughout Europe and explains why a Windows admin should care about them. Van Hoye is also a self-proclaimed 10, 40 and 100 Gbps addict -- with a home lab that would be the envy of many IT pros.
"For his home lab, it sounds like he's set up where some aren't yet," said Beehler. "A lot of people are asking questions about [10 Gbps] as well as how to run their storage over Ethernet. It's easy to go back and forth with him."
Van Hoye is a technical architect and strategist in Hyper-V, Azure, Active Directory, networking and storage technologies. He holds numerous certifications from Microsoft, including Hyper-V MVP and a Microsoft Extend Experts Team member in Belgium. He's also a Dell TechCenter Rockstar and a Veeam Vanguard.
Every Windows administrator would like better group policy tools and tips to deal with the everyday issues that stop them from getting to more interesting jobs. When sysadmins get stumped with a problem and need a place to turn for advice or just to vent, that place is @GroupPolicyGuy.
On Twitter, Darren Mar-Elia gives Windows Server admins the ins, outs, ups and downs of working with group policy, including a focus on how to implement group policy automation with PowerShell. "He also offers some blogs [to read], links to other news and PowerShell and group policy solutions," said Eric Beehler, co-owner of Consortio Services and TechTarget contributor. Mar-Elia is CTO and co-founder of SDMSoftware, a Windows configuration management tool. Many blog posts are on his company's page, it offers unbiased advice without pushing products on followers.
A Microsoft MVP for cloud and data center management, Mar-Elia has 2,225 followers and updates his Twitter feed a couple times a week. And although his hobbies include road cycling and wine making, his feed has a laser focus on group policy tools, management, and automation, and all things Microsoft.
