The list is long and it's hard to convey thanks by merely using words. This is my first major attempt at writing, and like any other first-time author, technical or nontechnical, I am equally excited and wish to express my gratitude to everyone who has contributed to my success. However, keeping the text's depth in mind, I will mention some of the people who have made a lot of difference.

Thanks to my teachers, who carved the intellect in me and provided me with enough boost to match up to the escape velocity. Mrs Rita Bhattacharya and Mr Subroto Roy, I would like to thank you from the bottom of my heart for instilling confidence in me when I needed it the most.

I'd like to thank my ex-counterparts, the late Satya Ramachandran, Richard Pulliam, and Surinder Singh. Satya was an inspiration and a friend. He and Richard were the first to get me up close and personal with the Microsoft Server world. Incidentally, I received my first official training on Hyper-V from Satya. Surinder is the the go-to guy when you are dwindling with technical ramble and need at least someone who can hear and clear your thoughts. Thanks Surinder for listening!

I would also like to extend a big word of thanks to my friends who are established authors and have always encouraged me to write. Prasenjit Sarkar, who is a VMware vExpert (yes, you heard it right and this book is about Hyper-V!) and a noted author; and Pratik Dasgupta, who is a storyteller.

For the team at Packt Publishing, a big "thank you" to all of you rock stars! The acquisition editors, James Jones and Kevin Colaco, for giving me the opportunity and providing me with timely feedback and guidance; the project coordinator, Sheetal Sarkar, for keeping a stopwatch and ensuring that I didn't lose track; and the content editors, Shaon Basu, Pragnesh Bilimoria, Natasha Dsouza, and of course, Sweny Sukumaran (the patient one), for ensuring that my scribbles made perfect sense. I am grateful to my technical reviewers, Alessandro Cardoso, Vinicius Apolinario, Yoong Seng Lai, Milan Temelkovski and Oleg Sokolov, for their friendly advice on points that required attention.

My final thanks go to my family. Well, I just can't thank them enough, as there's nothing without them: my mother, Shashi Grover, who has been the pillar of my life and has taught me to never get overwhelmed by obstacles; my brother, Sanchit Grover, who has been my relentless life support and has introduced me to the binary world of computers; and finally, my wife, Ruhi, whom I married while this book was underway.