I would like to express my gratitude to many people who saw me through this book. I would like to thank all those who provided their support, talked things over, read, wrote, offered comments, allowed me to quote their remarks, and assisted in the editing, proofreading, and designing of this book.

I owe a huge thanks to my manager, Anirudha Karandikar (Andy), for providing excellent support and advice. Above all, I want to thank my wife, Sandhya; my parents, Subramanian, Selvi, Shanmugam, Usha; and my naughty one-and-a-half-year-old son, Harsh. They all supported and encouraged me in spite of all the time the book took me away from them. It was a long and difficult journey for them. I am dedicating this book to my son, Harsh. I hope that one day, he will read this book and understand why I spent so much time in front of my computer. Last but not least, I beg forgiveness from all those who have been with me over the course of the years and whose names I have failed to mention. Thanks for everything; I look forward to writing the second edition of this book and a few more books on Open Cloud Computing soon!