Acknowledgments

The group of people that were essential for the creation of this book are the Service Availability (SA) Forum's Technical Working Group representatives of the different member companies; who concocted the specifications and provided a challenging yet inspiring environment for learning and growing in the field. We cannot possibly list all the participants without missing a few, so we will not do so. There were however a few outstanding:

We had extremely constructive and rewarding discussions with the SA Forum Software Management Working Group when we were creating the Software Management Framework, for which we would like to thank Peter Frejek, Shyam Penubolu, and Kannan Kasturi. We probably should not forget about another regular participant of our marathon-length conference calls: the Dog whose comments broke the seriousness of the discussions.

We would like to thank Fred Herrmann, who left his fingerprints over most if not all SA Forum service specifications, and for the numerous stimulating discussions and debates which made the experience so much more exciting. And in the debates it was a pleasure to have the calming wisdom of Dave Penkler. Dave was also instrumental in the writing and reviewing of this book. We are grateful to him for graciously stepping up and helping out with key chapters when we were under pressure of time and short of a pair of fresh eyes.

We are deeply obliged to our co-authors for helping us create this book. For most of them this meant the sacrifice of their spare time – stealing it from their families and friends to deliver the chapters and with that make the book so much more interesting.

Finally we would like to thank Wiley and in particular Sophia Travis for recognizing the vision in our book proposal and helping us through the stress of the first book with such an ease that it truly felt like a breeze.

From Maria

First and foremost I would like to thank the generosity of Ericsson and within that of my managers Magnus Buhrgard and Denis Monette for allotting me the time to work on this book and their continuous support and trust that it would be completed. Not that I ever had a doubt, but it definitely took more time and efforts than I anticipated. Their support made the whole project possible.

I am also grateful to the MAGIC team of Concordia University. The professors: Ferhat Khendek, Rachida Dssouli, and Abdelwahab Hamou-Lhadj, the students Ali Kanso, Setareh Kohzadi, Anik Mishra, Ulf Schwekendiek, Pejman Salehi, and the post-docs: Pietro Colombo and Abdelouahed Gherbi. They provided me with a completely different learning experience. All of them had their own approach to the problem and in the discussions I had to learn to investigate the subject from many different sometimes unconventional angles and answer questions that within industry were taken for granted. These discussions and working together on the problems led me to a fresh look and a deeper understanding of the subject all facilitating (at least in my belief) a better delivery.

Finally I would like to thank my colleagues in Montreal and across the sea in Stockholm who were the initiators of this project with their requests and suggestions, who joined my family and friends, in supporting and encouraging me in my writing from the beginning.

A heartfelt thank to all of you.

Maria Toeroe

September, 2011

From Francis

The undertaking to write a book is a daunting commitment even in the best of times, having to do it in my spare time after the day job was rather demanding. My contribution to this book would not have been possible if it was not for the thoughtful understanding and unreserved support from my wife Riikka, who has the shared belief that this book project was good for me. She deserves a medal for putting up with my long evenings and weekends of writing.

As if my lack of time were not enough, I went through one round of company reorganization and was under the threat of lay-off for some weeks – a slightly different kind of redundancy I originally planned to think about. My warm thank you goes to Minna Uimonen, who has always encouraged me and reminded me of the Finnish sisu during this difficult time. I am grateful to all my friends for their kind wishes and understanding of my short disappearance. I look forward to re-integrating with the community and do what I do best – as a highly available ‘Chief Entertainment Officer.’

Francis Tam

September, 2011