One of the benefits of my job and role as MVP is that I have the opportunity to meet a lot of BizTalk community members, MVP’s and Microsoft professionals around the world. Some of them became good friends. One of them is Sandro Pereira, who I met for the first time during MVP summit beginning 2011. He is very active in the community through for instance blogs, forums, and the TechNet Wiki. Many of you will probably recognize him through on of his contributions.

Sandro Pereira is 34 years old and lives in Crestuma, a small village in the beautiful region of Oporto in Portugal (known worldwide for its wine: Port wine and also classified as World Heritage by UNESCO). At end of this year he will begin a life together with his beautiful girlfriend Lígia, a big support in his life.

Sandro started his professional career as a Java, C++ and C# developer and then as a Web project manager. In 2005 he decided it was time to accept a new challenge and joined DevScope as BizTalk consultant. Currently he is also as Project Manager with focus on systems integration using BizTalk Server and Windows Azure Service Bus. DevScope is a company specializing in business intelligence solutions, systems integration, CRM and collaborative portals based on Microsoft technology and predominantly active in the industrial, financial and public sector.

Portugal is a small country with a small community of specializing technicians in BizTalk, this allows Sandro to have the versatility to perform a bit of all BizTalk roles:
  • as a BizTalk Architect he advises his clients about BizTalk infrastructure environments and design integration solutions;
  • as a BizTalk Developer he implements integration scenarios (EIA, B2B and BPM);
  • and often as BizTalk Administrator he performs BizTalk administration and audit environments, depending on the client in question.

Personally I consider myself more as BizTalk Architect and BizTalk Developer probably less, but I'll always play the role of developer, because I love it!

Sandro has like many other BizTalk community members I interviewed before has an opinion/view on the product:

Like all products, BizTalk Server has its advantages and disadvantages; there are those who love the product and those who simply hates; BizTalk Server is one of the most mature and stable products from Microsoft and in my personal opinion is one of the best platforms that I know to work in integration scenarios (EIA, B2B and BPM). Of course, these platform, can still be improved and continue to grow, this is what is expected with the planned launch of the new version BizTalk Server 2010 R2.

Some of his friends say Sandro is a workaholic (or Bizaholic :)) because one of the activities he loves doing in his spare time is to write technical articles about BizTalk. He writes for his blog and contributes to a number of communities as he is member of:

Seem like too much work but I couldn't disagree more, I just don’t consider this work, this is simply a hobby that I enjoy do it. Besides being a healthy hobby, that helps me improve day after day and it has allowed me to be awarded, since 2011, Most Valuable Professional (MVP) for BizTalk Server, travel and have the pleasure to meet excellent technicians worldwide.

To BizTalk community Sandro would like to say the following:  I would like to thank all and also leave a challenge: not to restrict themselves only to consume information but also to start sharing the knowledge they have, I'm sure that they will bring additional value to the community.

Beside being a Bizaholic Sandro loves spending time with my family, going out at night for a drink with his friends, going to the cinema, traveling with his girlfriend and play a variety of sports. He is active in snowboarding, snooker, karting, biking, soccer, but his favorite is futsal (indoor soccer).

The only sport I like to watch is soccer, and to specify in more detail, only the matches of best team in the world: Futebol Clube do Porto.

I would like to thank Sandro for his contributions and time for this interview. He is a great inspiration to many, one of the most productive community members and above all a good friend.