Knowledge is based on many different facets - what you know, knowing where information can be found, and who you know. The information in this book is a combination of all these facets. Data sources have been referenced in this book; these include references to people, URLs, and other books. But much of the knowledge that is in this book comes from very smart people. Not all the people listed in this acknowledgment participated in the writing of this book, but have influenced and guided me in my life that has culminated in this work. First and foremost, I need to thank my wife for helping me with the book and providing some of the editing throughout the various chapters. Next I want to thank Johnny and Katherine for tolerating me during the months that I worked on this book. Next I want to thank my mother, Lillian Speed, for teaching me to "think big". Thanks to Ed Speed for the inspiration to keep publishing. Thanks to Packt, Srimoyee Ghoshal, and Ved Prakash Jha, for their hard work in getting this book published. Thanks to the various vendors for their submissions to the Appendix of this book.

Thanks to all the co-authors - you ALL did a great job!

Special thanks to Lotus/IBM (and ISSL), Larry Berthelsen, Chris Cotton, Steven Stansel, Martin Crotty, Mark Steinborn, and John Allessio, for their assistance in getter this book published. Special thanks to Victor Ross for his review. Many thanks to Mark J. Guerinot for writing the foreword to this book.

Now to talk about the really smart people - due to legal issues, the people listed below did not directly contribute to this book, but I have learned a lot from these people via work and their friendship:

Gail Pilgrim, Jason Erickson, Jeff Jablonowski, John Allessio, Boris Vishnevsky, Adam Hanna, Brad Schauf, Scott Souder, David Byrd, Stan Logan, Paul Raymond, David Little, Craig Levine, Mark Harper, Jeff Pinkston, Jordi Riera, Dave Erickson, David Bell, Mark Leaser, Gary Wood, John Kistler, Luc Groleau, Michael Dennehy, Robert Thietje, Francois Nasser, Kim Artlip, Marlene Botter, Mike Dudding, Stephen Cooke, Ciaran DellaFera, Tom Agoston, Carl Baumann, the very brilliant Dr Seshagiri Rao, Alistair Rennie, Amanda Vance, Andrea Waugh Metzger, Barry Rosen, Bennie Gibson, Beth Anne Collopy, Bill Hume, Brent A. Peters, Ivan Dell'Era, Carlos Gonzalez, Chad Holznagel, Charles K. DeLone, Don Bunch, Don Nadel,, Cheryl Rogers-McGraw, Tracy Goddard, the great Chuck Stauber, David R. Hinkle, Doug Parham, Kelly Ryan, The very smart Frederic Dahm, Gary Ernst, Gary Desmarais, Super PM Glenn Sicam, Henry Bestritsky, Traci Blowers, Hissan C Waheed, Ian Reid, James Wheeler, Jay Cousineau, Jayasree Gautam, Anthony (Joey) Bernal, Nancy Norris, Nancy Stevens, Dr. John Lamb, Robert Nellis, and special thanks to another very smart dude - "John Norton"; also thanks to: Jay Leiserson, John Sullivan, Joseph Anderson, Joyce Cymerman, Katherine Holden, Kathleen Kulkoski, Kevin Lynch, Michael Dudding, Lauri Jones, Lisa Santana, Marc Galeazza, Marco M Noel, Mark Leaser, Mark Steinborn, Marlene Botter, Mary Ellen Zurko, Naemi Engler, Nancy Stevens, Paul Culpepper, Paul Raymond, Peter Burkhardt, Ralph Vawter, Rena Chang, Nancy Norris, Rex McCaskill, Richard S Gornitsky, Rob Gearhart, Rob Sellati, Robert Nellis, Robert Thietje, Sean F Moore, Sean Long, Sean Scott, Sherry Price, Stephen Hardison, Steve Sterka, Steve Matrullo, Steven J Amadril, Terry Fouchey, Victor Ross, William Destache, and the always great Ted Smith.

There are so many people that I want to thank for their help. First, I would like to thank Packt Publishing, for publishing this book. Thanks to IBM where I have been allowed to grow personally and professionally. Dick McCarrick, who has helped to shape my words and ideas into something worthy of publishing. My manager, Larry Berthelsen and John Kistler for approving this book, and all of their support. My co-authors, who have poured countless hours and energy into making this book a reality. Tim Speed, without whom this book would not exist. Tim, it seems like yesterday we were eating lunch in Rockefeller Plaza brainstorming on this book. Thanks for your patience and gentle nudging; you have helped me grow personally and professionally beyond my own expectations. My Mother, Father, brother, and grandparents. To all of my colleagues and friends: Mark Guerinot, Marc Galleazza, Chris Cotton, Gary Desmarais, Don Bunch, Luis Benitez, Bob Thietje, Glenn Sicam, Kelly Ryan, John Norton, Gail Pilgrim, Steven Amadril, Nancy Stevens, Carlos Gonzales, Matthew Buchman, David Carlston, Mike Noble, Todd Merkel, Tina Feuer, Chad Scott, Matt McCall, Kim McCall, Thu Doan, Michael Johannson, Bill McAnn, Larry Mancini, Keith Wooten, Stephen Hardison, Mark Harper, David Byrd, Joey Bernal, Marc Hendricks, Jim Price, Yasmin Al-Shibib, Jose Ocasio, Marc Allan, Matt Stien, Michael Granit, Stephen Rafoul, Seth Berk, Rob Buchwald, Aaron Greenberg, and Scott Sapire. Stella, you too.

I would like to dedicate my efforts toward this book to Lisa, my loving wife and best friend, and to my father, Gary, who without knowing it led me to technology and ultimately my career. Additionally, I would like to thank the following individuals who helped me through the writing process, Anthony Holmes, Andy Higgins, Tad Siminitz, and Rick Sizemore for contributing valuable content; Adam Hannah for his support and giving me the time to do the writing; Tim for including me as an author and to Dick for his tireless efforts in editing my content; my family including my mother Donna, brother Gary, sisters Debbie, Dara, and Denise; and finally my love to Kylie, Jacob, and Jolie for being so patient with daddy as he was taking time away from "play" to write this book.

I would like to thank many people for their support in the creation of this book. Thank you to Packt Publishing for providing me a formal venue to put down the thoughts running around in my head. A special thanks to Dick McCarrick and Tim Speed for their efforts in putting this book together and inviting me to be part of the ride. The next group is a set of very smart people that have been influential in the many areas covered in my section: Stephen Hardison, Mark Harper, Chris Heltzel, Gene Leo, Greg Melahn, Marc Pagnier, Satwiksai Seshasai, Tim Speed, Amy Widmer, and the ISSL Technology Team. Finally I would like to close by thanking the ISSL management team for their support of this book and my involvement.

I would like to thank everyone at IBM for allowing me the time and information required to write this book. IBM continues to be an amazing place to work filled with smart people.

Thanks to Tim Speed for the opportunity to participate in the effort on this book.

Thanks to: Jeff Eisen, Jeff Calow, Niklaus Hiedlauf, and Brian O'Donovan.

For their expert input regarding Lotus Notes 8, SOA, and the composite application editor. Thanks to my manager Dan Lorraine and our Director of Americas Mark Guerinot for supporting this valuable and important work in ISSL. And, finally, thanks to the extended team of ISSL consultants for their input and ongoing efforts in supporting leading-edge products like Lotus Notes 8.