Acknowledgements

I want to first thank my wife, Teresa, for her support during the short writing cycle I had available in which to write this book.

Next, I need to thank Roxie Strackbein, my manager at HP, who, at the time I proposed writing this book, provided the encouragement and support I needed to press forward with this writing effort.

Thanks go to the hard-working analysts, administrators, developers, and managers at my favorite customer site for their willingness to hire me for two years to assist in the rollout of NNM across their company. My hat is off to Majed Barbar, Duane Harkness, Kevin Wenk, Walt Anderson, Ken Chinn, Grant Bohnet, Jerry Snyder, Dennis Huss, Paul Carlson, Dave Troje, John O’Meara, Scott Borow, and Ken Yang.

Let me extend great thanks to my stable of the most faithful and loyal technical reviewers I could have asked for — Duane Harkness, Dave Brink, Wendy Studinski, Tim Antonsen, Harry Lynch, Eric Pulsipher, and Paul Rice.

In the consulting arena HP depends on principal consultants to find, qualify, book, and monitor business. Therefore I must also thank Ralph Frid for his successful efforts in linking me to so many interesting NNM networking engagements.

Finally, let me mention my Norwegian forest cat, Mister Newton, for his efforts at keeping my lap warm during the writing process. He is totally puzzled about the black box with the play buttons I spent hours with while he slept.

Mister Newton