This time of the year I like to look back at the previous year and think about some of the things I have done over the year, what went well and what didnt go so well.
This year I went a little further, I looked back at what I have done since at Microsoft.
One of the cool things about working at Microsoft is that you get a chance to influence a lot of technologies that will have (one hopes) a positive impact on the world.
Given my background the sorts of projects I end up working on tend to be platform sorts of technologies or security reviews of larger projects so this ends up being particularly true for me.
Most recently I have been working on something called Network Access Protection, NAP is a solution to facilitate policy based (vs topology) definition of your networks.
The idea is that you can create rules that hosts must conform to if they are to access your network or resources on your network, these rules can take into consideration properties of the machine (does it have a host based firewall?, does it have patch x applied, etc.) as well as properties of the user (is the user authenticated, are they a member of the appropriate group, etc.).
Although NAP as a concept existed before I joined this team, I feel I have had a large impact on the successful delivery of this technology in VISTA and Longhorn.
Before NAP however I have worked either directly (as the owner) or as a consultant on the development of some of the following:
- CryptoAPI 1 - CryptoAPI 1 is the API framework in Windows responsible for performing cryptographic operations as well as the (legacy) framework for integrating smartcards into Windows.
- CryptoAPI 2 - CryptoAPI 2 is the API framework in Windows for performing certificate validation, and creating/validating Cryptographic Message Syntax (CMS) messages.
- Certificate Authority, OCSP Server and Certificate Enrollment - The Microsoft PKI related server components.
- Code Authentication - The framework for code authentication in windows (Authenticode, Catalog Database, Timestamping, etc.)
- System.Security.Cryptography.Certificates and System.Security.Cryptograohy.PKCS - Support for CryptoAPI 2 based functionality in the .NET Framework 2.0.
- InfoPath Document Signing - InfoPath is a forms signing solution that has been added to the Office Suite, we did some cool XMLDSIG based signing support in the current release I was able to help with.
- Office Document Signing - I was able to work with the Office 12 team on the early designs of the Office 12 signing features, this is a total re-write of the signing framework.
- XPS Signing - In VISTA we have a new document format, I had a chance to work closely with the team building this feature (the classes, the viewer, container format, etc).
- Windows Live ID (formarly known as Passport) - I had a stint in a security architecture role for the team that is responsible for the new Live ID platform and the protocols that make it up.
- IPv6 and IPSEC - VISTA we have done a bunch of work to support IPSEC and IPv6 in a more seamless way, I have had numerous operotunities to work with this team stuff.
Whats cool about this is that this is just a small list of the projects I have been able to have a positive impact on, there are a ton others inlcuding Media Center, Internet Explorer, and others.
I can not think of any other company where I could have impacted so many things in such a short period of time (only 5 years).
In any event, MSFT isnt such a bad place to be :)
Ryan