Acknowledgments

Rand Morimoto, Ph.D., MVP, MCITP, CISSP: A note of thanks to the Windows 2016 early adopter program and product teams for all your support of our early adopter testing and experiences! There’s so much in this new release, definitely making a huge difference in providing our organization and that of our clients so much better in a single-vendor solution!

I also want to thank the consultants at Convergent Computing and our early adopter clients who fiddle with these new technologies very early on, and then take the leap of faith in putting the products into production to experience (and at times feel the pain) as we work through best practices. The early adopter experiences give us the knowledge and experience we need to share with all who use this book as their guide in their production environments based on the lessons learned.

Jeffrey Shapiro, MCSE, MCT: It’s long overdue, but I owe the success of my 20+ year sojourn into Windows Server to my long-time friend Steven Cohen, of the ICREATIVES national staffing company in Florida. On the streets after a massive legal battle over an attempted hostile takeover of a software company I was part of, Steven offered me a job supporting the first Windows NT Servers installed to replace IBM’s OS/2 servers in public institutions in Florida. It’s been a roller coaster ride ever since, and many long days and sleepiness nights. Naturally, many of my clients deserve acknowledgement as well. I want to thank my good friend Dovid Wheeler, who was able to help unload many hours required to not only support servers, but help with chapter preparation, review, and fact checking.

My family, especially my wife Esther, are the rock and moat of my castle, and deserve much praise for not writing me off during long days in the wormholes of deployment and support . . . never really knowing if I would return sane, sick, or shot.

My literary agent, Waterside Productions, has stood by me for more than two decades—thank you for all the support. And Pearson Education Inc., which has been a great publisher to work with.

Finally, thanks to Rand and my acquisitions editor, Trina MacDonald, for trusting me with what is probably the great samurai of Windows Server books.

Guy Yardeni, MCITP, CISSP, MVP: I want to first and foremost thank Rand for the opportunity to join another book team and for the ridiculous amount of work he puts in to keep a group of authors moving ahead and focused on target.

I also want to thank Microsoft’s TAP team for providing the information and support that makes writing these books a much easier and more enjoyable process. To the folks at Sams publishing, especially Neil and Cindy for their efforts and assistance in making the project happen and making sure we get paid.

And another thanks to my family because they bear the brunt of my stress and craziness during the writing process. I couldn’t have done this without you.

Omar Droubi, MCTS: I would like to thank and acknowledge many of my customers, business associates, friends, and family for the support and inspiration they give me. I would also like to thank Rand Morimoto, Sams Publishing, and the other coauthors and contributing writers of this book and my previous books. I would like to acknowledge my brother, Hadi Droubi; my wife, Colby; and Khalil and Jamil for all the family love and support. To Sherre England, Raul Alcaraz, Rick Hernandez, thanks for helping me build my business and complete my writing assignments.

Michael Noel, MVP: It’s now been a decade since I first got involved in the business of writing computer books, and indeed the Windows Unleashed series was the first series I wrote those many years ago. I can tell you one thing: These volumes are the result of a great deal of blood, sweat, and tears, and I am extremely fortunate to have had the backing of a great team at Sams Publishing over the years, especially my good friend and editor, Neil Rowe, but also including the rest of the fantastic group of people who work behind the scenes to make books like this a reality.

On that note, this book offers a great debt of gratitude to lead author, Rand Morimoto, whom I’ve had the pleasure of working with for more than a decade now. At the same time, I’m grateful for the help of the other authors and contributing writers who get involved, particularly several of my coworkers at CCO—great work, everyone!

I’d also like to thank the many people who have attended my conferences and events over the past years, all around the world. I find it fascinating that we all live different lives in different cultures but are tied together with the same technical challenges that all IT workers worldwide face.

And last but not least, a huge thanks to my wonderful family for putting up with all of the book writing, public speaking, and late nights working in the lab. My wonderful wife, Marina; my beautiful daughter, Julia; my parents, George and Mary; and my most amazing in-laws, Val and Liza. I love all of you dearly!

Andrew Abbate, MCITP: I think this is book #8 for me, and I continue to be amazed at the amount of work that goes into these things. Sometimes I think that we, as authors, have the easy part. We get to just sit back and talk about the same geekery that we’d be talking about anyway. It’s the team of editors and reviewers and techies at Sams that turn our ramblings into an amazing product; as always, I’d like to thank them for another opportunity to get our ideas and words out to such a wide audience. I’d also like to thanks all the clients I’ve worked with over the years, as a fair amount of the knowledge and experience that go into these books came from them. I’m truly blessed to work in an industry where I can both learn and teach every day.

Chris Amaris, MCITP, MCTS, CISSP: Writing these books is a lot like eating really spicy food. You think it sounds like fun when the idea comes up, you wonder what you were thinking in the middle of it, and you think “Yeah, I did it!” when it is all over. I want to thank Rand Morimoto for once again letting me back in the game at a Scoville rating of 100,000.

I would also like to thank Sophia for handling all the myriad of family tasks such as driving to math classes, games, and practices and cooking dinners while I scrambled to meet deadlines. I could not do it without you.