Acknowledgments

This book was made possible by the cheerful support of Gartner Research management. Peter Sondergaard, Val Sriber, Jeff Schulman, and Anthony Bradley understood the value of event processing from the start. They believed in its importance to the industry enough to invest resources. Without their backing and personal encouragement, this project would not have happened.

The research that led to the writing of the book was also funded, in part, by the Lee Center at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech). Members of the Center listened to seminars, read papers, and gave constructive criticism over a decade. The research was also funded in part by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative. Many students in the Infospheres group at Caltech worked on event-processing systems from the late 1980s; their influence is gratefully acknowledged.

The information for this book was drawn from many sources. As with any book, it is impossible to trace the origins of much of it, but some contributions stand out. We would like thank David Luckham for his book, insights conveyed through countless discussions, and friendship. Several other people contributed directly to this book by providing comments and valuable input as we worked, including John Bates, Opher Etzion, Dieter Gawlick, Alan Lundberg, Giles Nelson, Peter Niblett, Mark Palmer, Dale Skeen, Paul Vincent, and Jeff Wootton. We leaned heavily on the work done by many colleagues at Gartner, Inc., particularly Anthony Bradley, Bill Gassman, Yefim Natis, Massimo Pezzini, Dan Sholler, Jim Sinur, and Jess Thompson. Members of the Event Processing Technical Society helped directly and indirectly in many ways. We give special thanks to the participants in the EPTS Glossary Working Group: Jeff Adkins, Pedro Bizarro, H.-Arno Jacobsen, David Luckham, Albert Mavashev, Brenda M. Michelson, Peter Niblett, and David Tucker. Much of the vital information on the commercial use of event processing is drawn from discussions, conference calls, e-mails, and other interactions with Gartner clients (Roy notes he learned more from them than they did from him on many occasions).

We are also grateful to those who reviewed drafts of the material: Jeff Adkins, Carola Campbell, Jean Chandy, Thomas Chandy, Lesley Koustaff, Michael Schulte, William Sullivan, and Suzanne Swan. They took time from their busy schedules to provide feedback on the clarity and readability of the book from the practitioner’s point of view.

Finally, we thank Heather Pemberton Levy, developmental editor at Gartner Inc., Roger Stewart, sponsoring editor at McGraw-Hill, and Patricia Wallenburg, project editor, for the work they did to make this project a success. It was truly a pleasure working with them.