One of the things that is making this transition to Check Point Software easier is the community of people that support, use, and sell what used to be called Firewall-1, but now goes by a few different names and offers many more functions than just firewalling and VPNs. It's a community I have never really left, having spent the last decade in Nokia's Security Appliance Business, but it's one I was less visible in over the past several years.
Despite being less visible in recent years, I have still been contributing, albeit indirectly. I have been maintaining Nokia's knowledge base, which of course contains many articles that relate to Check Point. I haven't written many Check Point-related articles in recent years, but I do work to make sure that the articles other folks in support write are readable. I also help our team out in various, sundry capacities, with the goal being to get customer issues resolved quickly.
In the course of this work, and my presence on many a social network, I run across the occasional person who thanks me for the contribution I made to the betterment of the Check Point community many years ago. As I re-engage in the community, the accolades have noticeably increased.
Meanwhile, Kellman Meghu, a SE manager for Check Point Software in Canada, recently gave a troubleshooting presentation for CPX 2009 in Las Vegas (CPX, or Check Point Experience, is their annual trade show). In the presentation, he apparently decided to use a picture of me to represent when things got hairy and you needed expert advice from support.
Kellman tweeted the following yesterday:
Used a picture of @PhoneBoyĀ in his presentation. The crowd cheered; no one has forgotten the help he has provided to CP users.
To say I was touched and humbled is an understatement.
So what now?Ā Hard to make any grand plans under the circumstances, but I'm keeping busy.Ā I'm still running theĀ FireWall-1 GurusĀ mailing list and participating on theĀ CPUG Forums, helping out where I can. It's not much, but until the deal between Nokia and Check Point closes, it's difficult to do much else.