There are many people who have contributed to this book, and I'd like to take this opportunity to say thanks to them.

First and foremost, a big thank you to the folks at Packt Publishing, especially Nikhil and Anish, for giving me the opportunity to write this book. Your support and guidance throughout the writing process has been invaluable.

Secondly, a huge credit to the reviewers, in particular, Vlastimil Holer, who have helped me streamline the content of this book and improve the reading experience.

Thirdly, I'd like to thank my lovely wife, Thury, and my children, Markus, Jakob, and Elisa, for allowing me to take occasional breaks from daddy duties to concentrate on writing this book.

Finally, I would like to thank my colleagues at the Financial Times, namely the members of the Integration Engineering team and Team CMS. In the past years, I've been working with them in various projects involving Puppet. This has enabled me to hone my Puppet skills and learn how to use this tool to solve specific business problems.