First and Foremost, I would thank God who has always showered his choicest blessings on me. I thank Him for all that he has done for me.

I would like to thank PACKT and everyone I worked with—Priyanka Baruah, Bansari Barot, Patricia Weir, Aboli Mendhe, Bhushan Pangaonkar, Ved Prakash Jha, Della Pradeep and others. They worked very hard with the aggressive schedule I proposed on this book, and I truly do appreciate their contributions.

Next, I'd like to thank the Technical Reviewers of our book, Rajesh R. V. and Rajesh R. Warrier. Without them, you wouldn't see the text as it appears here. Thank you for your thorough review of the scripts and testing of the code. Your reviews were very objective in pointing out issues and helping me to come up with the even better chapters.

This book would have never been possible if were it not for the excellent colleagues at IBS (other than the reviewers) whom I have worked with and learned from. The most important of them are Prasanth G Nair, Shyam Sankar S, Sherry CK, Jayan P and Amritha Mathew M. Thanks are due to VK Mathews for providing all of us the opportunity. I would also like to thank Rajasekhar C. and Ajmal Khan who provided me the right challenges at the right time.

Special thanks are due to Dr. Srinivas Padmanabhuni, Principal Researcher, Web Services/SOA Centre of Excellence, Software Engineering and Technology Labs, Infosys for his guidance and help.

I would like to thank my wife and best friend Sowmya for being a constant source of inspiration in my life. Also my sweet little daughter Ann, I remember all those moments when you were so desperate to play with me and to go out for 'dinner' with pappa and amma, but I could not look beyond my laptop screen. Both of you are my angels, thanks for everything, especially for being in my life.

A massive thanks must go to my Mom and Dad—Azhakamma and Christudas—who have supported their wayward son through good and lean times, and have given everything and asked for nothing. I thank the rest of my family for their support and friendship— my sister Binitha and family, my wife's mother, Pamala, and father Hubert for their unconditional encouragement and love in helping me find the energy to complete this book.

I would also like to thank Ramavarma R for supporting me through his consultancy, MacJavaB.

There were many others who played their part too. Most important of them are the creators of the frameworks that have inspired me to write this book. Thank you for the JBI specification and special thanks to the ServiceMix developer and user community.

Last, it's necessary to thank you, the reader, for choosing to buy this book. I understand that you have a specific intention in choosing to read this book and I hope I take only the minimum required time from your busy schedules to serve your requirements.