ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This is my third book and my first foray into AWS. I first want to thank Matt Walker for connecting me to the opportunity with my first book and encouraging me to take it on. I hope that you find this book to be an informative and comprehensive aid in your own professional development and growth.

I owe a special thanks for my technical editor on this book, Taylor York, for always steering me in the right direction with AWS and keeping me focused on the right perspective when presenting AWS technologies and how to approach them.

I worked with David Henry for many years at the University of Maryland and gained much of my knowledge about middleware and systems architecture from him. I owe much of my philosophy and approach to facing IT challenges today to the things I learned working for and with him. There are so many others from my days at the University of Maryland from whom I learned so much. However, I want to specifically call out John Pfeifer, David Arnold, Spence Spencer, Kevin Hildebrand, Prasad Dharmasena, Fran LoPresti, Eric Sturdivant, Willie Brown, Sonja Kueppers, Ira Gold, and Brian Swartzfager.

From my time at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), I want to specifically thank Jon Booth and Ketan Patel for giving me the opportunity to move into a formal security position for the first time and trusting me to oversee incredibly public and visible systems. Also, thanks to Zabeen Chong for giving me the opportunity to join CMS and expand beyond my roots in the academic world. Finally, I could never leave out my dear friend Andy Trusz, who from my first day at CMS showed me the ropes of the workplace and became a very close personal friend. Sadly, he lost his battle with cancer the very day I left CMS for Hewlett Packard Enterprise. I will never forget his friendship and all he showed me!

With any project of this scale, one needs enormous support and understanding from bosses and coworkers. Ruth Pine was a terrific boss, giving me the time and freedom to work on my original books and was always very supportive, as well as giving me the opportunity at all times to work on new challenges and expand my areas of expertise, most notably with cloud and SIEM technologies. Thanks also to Brian Moore, Joe Fuhrman, Steve Larson, BJ Kerlavage, David Kohlway, Seref Konur, Jack Schatoff, and the already mentioned Matt Walker for being part of an amazing team at HPE/DXC/Perspecta and showing me so many different perspectives and new approaches to challenges! I also have to thank some colleagues from other companies I have worked closely with on projects over the years for all their support and encouragement—specifically, Anna Tant, Jason Ashbaugh, and Richie Frieman.

Three years ago, I was presented with the opportunity to get back to my roots in the academic world with a terrific job at Johns Hopkins University working with the Enterprise Authentication team on SSO and federated identity systems. With a large hospital, this was an ideal opportunity to combine my experience working in healthcare. I want to thank my director, Andy Baldwin, for this opportunity; my manager, Anthony Reid; and the amazing team I work with: Etan Weintraub, Stephen Molczyk, Kevin Buckley, Sam Bennett, John Clark, Brian Schisler, Michael Goldberg, and Dotun Adeoson. I would also like to thank Tyge Goodfellow, Eric Wunder, Steve Metheny, Phil Bearmen, and Dawn Hayes for expanding my security and IDM knowledge in many different directions!

Thank you to my parents, Richard and Susan, for all of your support and encouragement!

Last and most certainly not least, I want to thank my amazing wife, Robyn, for always being supportive with everything I have done professionally and personally. With four young kids at home, I would have never been able to even consider this project without her help and understanding—and for running interference with all our kids and pets!