The best part about writing a book is working with an awesome team that motivates you to give it your best. That you are holding this book today is attributed to the phenomenal team that made it happen.

Thanks to the entire editorial team, especially Rukshana Khambatta, Shreerang Deshpande, and Michelle Quadros, who managed the project with the meticulous planning and the coordination. This book would not have happened without Rukshana lending her ears to my original idea and giving it the shape that it needed to address the target audience, Shreerang's valuable inputs during the review, and Michelle's patience in coordinating with me and managing the schedule. An extended thanks to Vrinda Amberkar and Devdutt Kulkarni for their exhaustive scrutiny of every minute detail of the transcript and bringing out a quality blueprint for release.

To Rick Garibay, Microsoft Connected Systems MVP and GM CS Practice at Neudesic, for taking time out from his extremely busy schedule and writing a foreword for this book.

To the reviewers, Senthil Kumar and Pushpendra Singh, for their valuable inputs and expert feedback.

To Pushpendra Singh, Principal Consultant at Neudesic for his invaluable contribution to Chapter Four and timely advice in making this project a success.

To the partners at Neudesic, Parsa Rohani, Tim Marshall, Anthony Ferry, and Ashish Agarwal for creating such a wonderful company with which I am proud to be associated.

To Mickey Williams, David Pallmann, Rick Garibay, David Barkol, Mark Kuperstein, and Suman Choppala from Neudesic for being a source of inspiration and giving me the courage to write.

To Shaun Cicoria from Microsoft for getting me started on the concepts of claims-based identity and helping with resources at critical times.

To Mahesh Pesani, Rajasekhar Tonduru, Hemant Joshi, and Rajesh Nair for their friendly tips on the source code and images in several recipes.

And to my family: my wife Sarita, my daughter Aayushi, and my parents, for letting me spoil countless of their weekends during the course of writing the book.