Acknowledgments

We’d like to thank our publisher at Manning Publications, Marjan Bace, as well as our editor, Lianna Wlasiuk, for helping us understand in very specific ways how to improve our first drafts of the manuscript. Thanks to Lianna’s detailed feedback and patience, the book you see is in much better shape than it would otherwise have been. We’d also like to thank Cynthia Kane, who helped us to finish the book, by providing valuable input in the last stages of development. There were numerous other editors who worked with us along the way. We thank each and every one of them!

The rest of the staff at Manning is also to be thanked for their hard work and professionalism. That includes review editor Karen Tegtmeyer, design editor Dottie Marsico, copyeditor Benjamin Berg, proofreader Elizabeth Martin, typesetter Denis Dalinnik, project editor Mary Piergies, cover designer Leslie Haimes, and webmaster Gabriel Dobrescu. We also thank Ron Tomich for his help in promoting the book and getting the word out into the community.

Sincere thanks to our peer reviewers who read the manuscript at different times in the writing process and who provided us with much constructive feedback on how to improve it. We thank them for taking time to help us out. They are Craig Borysowich, Kunal Mittal, Nikhilesh Krishnamurthy, Srikanth Sundararajan, Patrick Steger, Vivek Awasthi, TVS Murthy, Jeff Machols, Scott Shaw, Nikolaos Kaintantzis, Andrew Nash, Doug Warren, Paul Williams, and Tom Valeksy. Special thanks to our technical proofreader, Sunil Kumar, who read the book one last time, shortly before it went to press, checking it for any remaining errors and inconsistencies. Thanks also to our MEAP readers who posted their feedback on early versions of the manuscript.

Ramarao Kanneganti

First, I’d like to thank my colleagues at HCL, Vikram Duvvoori, Kiran Somalwar, and Sundar Varadarajan, for their constant encouragement in this undertaking, that took more time and energy than I had ever anticipated. I also would like to acknowledge the support HCL gave us as we wrote this book by providing a great work environment.

Next, I’d like to thank my daughters, Kamala and Mallika, for letting me sacrifice playtime with them for this book. We will be able to make up for lost time now!

Finally, thanks to all of our customers—too many to name here—from whom we learned so much.

Prasad Chodavarapu

I am a “work in progress,” put together by everyone around me, and this book would not have come about without their influence. I am fortunate to have come into contact with a great number of people, each of whom loved me and enriched me in his or her unique way. I wish to thank all of them from the bottom of my heart for their affection.

I cannot list every one of them by name, but I would like to identify the following people: my parents, my late grandmother, and my brother and his family. My mentors, Vijaya Venkatesh, Adam Grove, and Rama. And my friends, Shailesh, Hari, Subbu, Sharath, Gangadhar, Sridhar, Madhavi, and their families. Also, all of my colleagues at HCL and Savera, especially Vikram, Hari, Rod, Krishna, Ramana, Ram Mohan, Sunil, Sowmya, Suresh, and Sandeep, who supported me directly in the writing of this book. And finally, my customers, especially Pankaj Srivastava of Cisco Systems.