Davide Mauri

As this is my first book as main author, I’ll go for the most common and obvious path of saying a big, huge “thank you” to my wife Olga, my amazing kids Riccardo and Anna, and my whole family Maurizio, Ornella e Claudio for…well everything. From little things to big, life-changing events, you have always been supportive and encouraged me to be my best self, either with words or, even more important, showing the way. And while these thanks are common and obvious, they are nonetheless heartfelt and true. So thanks, thanks, thanks. I love you all.

I also want to say thanks to Lara, Chuck, and Sanjay: without you, my experience in Microsoft wouldn’t have been the dream experience I’ve had – and I’m still having – so I really want to say thanks to you for everything you have done to help and support me in my journey. Thanks, thanks a lot. I also want to say a big “thank you” to Itzik, Lilach and Lubor, for being so welcoming from the first day we moved into the United States. You made us feeling at home right away, thanks!

Silvano Coriani

When I wrote my first “solo” book on ADO.NET and SQL Server, around 17 years ago, I promised myself that it was also going to be the last but when my friend and colleague Davide proposed me this team effort together with a group of great professionals like Anna, Sanjay, and Jovan, I couldn’t say “no.” My first big “thank you” is clearly for them, for their help and support during this adventure. During my 25+-years-long career, I’ve been blessed to be surrounded by a lot of great folks and learn from all of them, but the years I’ve spent in SQLCAT with Mark, Sanjay, and team have been a great gift and helped me to grow as a human being and a professional. I’d like to thank each and every one of them! And the story continues now within the Azure SQL team, where I have the privilege of keep working with wonderful individuals, colleagues, and bosses: thank you all!

On a personal level, first and foremost I’d like to thank my family: my lovely wife Serena and my kids Caterina and Lorenzo. Their patience, love, and support, especially during those long lockdown days when I was writing this book, were invaluable. Last but not least, a big thank to my broader family, my parents and parents-in-law, for their support and encouragement.

Anna Hoffman

Being relatively new to Azure SQL and the world of developers, I am so grateful to Davide, Silvano, Jovan, and Sanjay for the amazing opportunity to work on both topics with some of the world’s greatest SQL veterans. Through this experience, I have learned and grown from all of them in big ways. I also want to thank the SQL community, inside and outside of Microsoft, for being unlike any other community I’ve been a part of. Every day, I learn from you all, so thank you. I am thankful to every PM and engineer on our team, but specifically, I’d also like to thank Alain Dormehl, Bob Ward, and Buck Woody for providing much time and patience as I learn about Azure SQL and SQL Server. I also want to thank Asad Khan, our fearless SQL leader, for taking a chance on me two years ago in joining this team and for his continued support. Personally, I want to acknowledge my husband, Phil, who is my biggest cheerleader and helps me with our puppy (Moose, the best quarantine decision we ever made) when I spend long hours obsessing over Azure SQL. Finally, I want to thank my parents, Shaji and Leigh Ann Thomas, who inspire me every day to be better (and who started the Computer Science trend in our family) and my brother, Zachary, who is continuing that tradition in his final year at Duke University (I am so proud of you and can’t wait to see what you accomplish!).

Sanjay Mishra

I recently completed 15 years at Microsoft. In my early years in Microsoft, two people went out of their way to help me get settled and grow in my role, and I would like to acknowledge their contribution and influence – Mike Ruthruff and Prem Mehra. Mike spent countless hours with me in my early days helping me understand the new database product I was dealing with, which was so similar, yet so different from the database product I knew so well coming into Microsoft. Mike was my go-to person for everything from installing Windows (yes, installing and configuring Windows wasn’t easy on those Itanium boxes) to attaching a debugger and debugging an early build in our SQLCAT lab, with a complex customer workload. Mike’s kindness and generosity with his time helped me cut my teeth in SQL Server; else, this book would have been a distant dream.

Prem took me under his wings and coached me on dealing with customers at all levels – from a database developer to a CTO. Every time Prem was in a meeting with a customer, I would just sit there and observe him deal with them – irrespective of whether the customer was angry or happy, frustrated or confused, Prem’s mood would always be constant; I never saw him get unsettled. Customers respected him a lot. If I had to meet a customer alone, and I knew that Prem had worked with them earlier, I would introduce myself saying that “I work with Prem,” and it would immediately earn me a camaraderie with the customer that would have taken days and months to build. In later years, I earned a lot of kudos from various people for my customer empathy, but all of it has been Prem’s coaching.

Prem is enjoying his retired life, and Mike is having fun at his startup, but I miss them every single day at work. My 15 years at Microsoft and this book would not have happened if not for Mike and Prem’s influence in my early days. Thank you, Mike! Thank you, Prem!

Jovan Popovic

I would like to thank my daughters and wife for their patience and support during this adventure.