Acknowledgments

There are many people we want to thank for their help in making this book, starting with the Manning team: Michael Stephens, who first discussed the project with us; Christina Rudloff; the inimitable Marjan Bace; marketing genius Candace Gillhoolley; and our wonderful editors, in order of appearance: Emily Macel, Sara Onstine, and Sebastian Stirling. They were absolutely invaluable in providing advice and critiques, and in revving us up when we were out of juice.

We wish to thank our production team of Mary Piergies; maestro Troy Mott and his band of merry editors: Ben Berg, Tara McGoldrick, and Bob Herbstman; our talented proofreaders: Katie Tennant and Alyson Brener; and others behind the scenes whom we are not able to name.

The reader community also deserves a huge amount of credit. Author Online forum members MikB, carcarx, Javier Beneito Barquero, Mike Oliver, Gary White, nancom, delgad9, mexxik, netname, Henry G. Brown, varevadal, Terry Jeske, and Jeff Hall, among others, helped us find bugs, from the stupid to the super-complex, and gave us honest feedback when we needed it most. Keep ’em coming, and we’ll keep updating our errata and samples.

The following reviewers read the manuscript at various stages of its development and we thank them for their invaluable input: Jeroen Nouws, Deepak Vohra, Richard Freedman, Patrick Steger, Bill LaPrise, Kyle DeaMarais, Joel Schneider, Jeremy Anderson, Rizwan Lodhi, Craig Walls, Santosh Shanbhag, Shekhar Gulati, Al Scherer, John J. Ryan III, Kevin Griffin, Doug Warren, and Audrey Troutt.

Finally, we’d like to thank the Roo development team for being there and fixing bugs almost before we thought them up: Dr. Ben Alex, Stefan Schmidt, Alan Stewart, and Andrew Swan. Thank you for accepting our JIRA reports and working up fixes so we could stay on track. Special thanks to Ben for agreeing to write the foreword to our book, and to Alan and Andrew for a final technical proofread of the manuscript just before it went into production.

Ken Rimple

I would like to thank my wife, four children, and extended family, who deserve a big break after the almost two years I spent writing this book. I dedicate the book to my wife, Kris, because without seeing her complete more than nine books while raising our boys, I never thought I could finish this project. She can now finally stop saying, “Give the guy room, he’s writing a book, you know.”

Thanks to my college professor, Frank D. Quattrone, who got me started in obsessing over my writing as a literary magazine editor. And I absolutely must thank my mother, who always told me that I could do anything.

I would also like to acknowledge my employer, Chariot Solutions, for their support of the book by giving me a forum for training courses (http://chariotsolutions.com/education) and podcasts (http://techcast.chariotsolutions.com), and allowing me to participate in other endeavors, such as the Emerging Technologies for the Enterprise conference (http://phillyemergingtech.com) that also inform my writing.

A huge expression of gratitude to Srini Penchikala, who came in at the right time and helped me get this project done. His contributions in areas such as Spring Integration, JMS, email, cloud computing, and much more make this book extremely comprehensive.

I would be remiss if I didn’t thank Gordon Dickens for his research and writing contributions during the beginning of this book project. He and I are close friends, and without our crazy plan, hatched one day after the interview with Ben Alex, I might not have reached out to Manning.

Finally, I’d like to single out one contributor who must have a special mention: Mete Senocak contributed key early suggestions, edits, and frank advice. He also convinced me to roast, grind, and brew my own coffee, and now I am an intolerable coffee snob. You’re a good man, Mete, and I’m sure we’ll see each other in a coffee support group soon.

Srini Penchikala

First of all, I would like to thank Michael Stephens and Christina Rudloff, who were my first contacts at Manning, for giving me the opportunity to be part of this book writing project. It’s been a rewarding experience to contribute to the book as well as learn from others about authorship.

I also want to thank Ken Rimple for his guidance and mentoring in my transition from writing articles to writing a book.

Special thanks to our MEAP readers who provided excellent feedback and suggestions in improving the content as well as the sample application discussed in the book.

I would like to also thank my wife Kavitha and my seven year-old daughter Srihasa for their continued support and patience during the writing of this book.