I have learned a lot about the Internet of Things since being the lead author on the topic for an Apress book about 4 years ago. My clients have deployed a variety of these solutions and increasingly look for cloud-based resources, such as those found in Microsoft Azure, to scale the analysis of incoming data. More recently, many of these clients are also deploying Microsoft’s intelligent edge.

I have found particularly useful my meetings with major manufacturers and other companies, especially as they shared their vision and experiences. Many are using data from sensors for monitoring their connected factories, monitoring the remote devices that they build, and analyzing data from equipment and devices in performing predictive maintenance. Thanks to them for sharing.

During IoT briefings for clients, I frequently collaborated with other specialists within Microsoft. I would like to call out Michael Walton and Eddy Saad for helping our clients see a vision of what is possible.

Microsoft has a broad array of partners helping clients design and deploy these solutions. Some of those that I have worked with include Accenture, Avanade, and Hitachi Solutions, as well as many of Microsoft’s analytics partners and solution providers. Thanks especially to Jerry Hawk and his team for their support and guidance in many of these opportunities.

As I wrote this book, extensive changes were occurring in the Chicago Microsoft Technology Center where I worked. I would especially like to thank my former Director, Beth Malloy, and my current Director, Adetayo Adegoke, and long-time associates Charles Drayton and Ross LoForte for their support.

Of course, this book would not be possible without the efforts of Microsoft engineers and product managers who bring these offerings to market. The documentation that they produced was extremely useful in building the content presented here. Thanks for continuing to respond to our clients’ needs by providing a comprehensive set of offerings.

Writing and publishing a book usually takes about 9 months, and that period can be a time of smooth collaboration with a publisher (including continuity of support from a few key players) or one in which the key players come and go. I have experienced both. This is the third book that I have written for Apress, and they have become my favorite publisher. Jonathan Gennick, Assistant Editorial Director, once again saw the need and value for a book like this and gained swift approval for its production. He and I have now collaborated on producing books for over 20 years. Jill Balzano was once again the Coordinating Editor, my third collaboration with her. She makes staging a book like this one extremely easy.

This book was written on my long daily commutes on the train or evenings and weekends. It did require that I make some hard choices regarding where I would spend my time. Hopefully, my wife Jodie found that my writing of this book was not quite so noticeable as some of my earlier efforts. (Writers can get cranky at times.) The support from Jodie has been amazing over the years. Now that retirement from full-time work is just around the corner, I hope she doesn’t mind if I write another book or two in the future!