A very special acknowledgment to the Commissioner of Police, Ellison Greenslade, of The Royal Bahamas Police Force.

Also, thanks to the IBM management team that provided approval to publish this book: Walter L Berthelsen, Jack Shoemaker, Luis Pineda, Mark Guerinot, and thanks to our sponsor, Steve Robinson. Thanks to Steve Robinson for writing the foreword for this book. Thanks to the Packt Publishing team for their help and support, specially Anugya Khurana and Martin Bell. Special thanks to Victor Ross for reviewing many of my books. Thanks to Vijay Dheap for your comments and feedback on this book.

Also I thank my wife, Linda Speed, and son, Johnathon Speed, for helping me with the book and providing some of the editing throughout the various chapters. Next, I want to thank my mother, Lillian Speed, for teaching me to "think big". Thanks to Jo Stinebaugh; also thanks to all the co-authors—you all did a great job!

Other acknowledgments include: Katherine and Sean Mullins, Chris Cotton, Steven Stansel, Mark Steinborn, Jason Erickson, John Allessio, Tony Higham, Brad Schauf, Scott Souder, David Byrd, Jeff Pinkston, David Bell, Gary Wood, Robert Thietje, Jessie and Wanda Rodgers, Marlene Botter, Mike Dudding, Stephen Cooke, Dr Seshagiri Rao, Jose Burbano, Alistair Rennie, Amanda Vance, Barry Rosen, Charles K. DeLone, Don Bunch, Ed Speed, Matthew Speed, Chuck Stauber, David R. Hinkle, Doug Parham, Frederic Dahm, Gary Ernst, William and Sherry Destache, Gary Desmarais, Hissan C Waheed, Jay Cousineau, Jayasree Nampalli, Dr. John Lamb, and special thanks to "John Norton"; also thanks to: Kevin Lynch, Marc Galeazza, Marco M Noel, Steve Matrullo, Steven J Amadril, Terry Fouchey, Dellareece Ferguson, Kimbler Smith, Kevin Roberts, Shona Woods, Jevone Ferguson, Karoldann Darville, Harry Dolce, Zhivago Dames, Anthony DiDonato, Tim Cardwell, Barry Heinz, Cynthia L. Oehmig, Scot Bentley, Brian C Erle, Peter Volkmar, Claude Roy, David Saunders, Dieter Poetzschke, Hunter Medney, David and Dana Jea, Joe Christopher, Dennis Anderson, John J Johnson, William Nunez, Kevin Mills, Kevin Pare, Kevin Peake, Melanie Skinner, Pam Fryer, Rahul Vyas, Robert McDonald, Steven Kramer, and Jim and Nadia Kilnoski, Clark and Stephanie Oberly, and Tony Cusato.

Deep thanks to my loving family and friends whose support and encouragement were always available.

Thanks also to my sweet basset hound, Princess, who sacrificed walks to allow me to finish "just one more page".

Thanks to Packt Publishing for their support and editing over this process.

My sincere thanks to Jim for his patience while I worked late nights, and to Heather for keeping me grounded and on the right path.

I would like to dedicate my efforts towards this book to Lisa, my loving wife and best friend, and to my father, Gary, who without knowing it led me to technology and ultimately my career, I miss you. Additionally, I would like to thank the following individuals who helped me through the writing process: Andy Higgins, Tad Siminitz, Palma Bickford, Charles Lin, and Mark Dudding; Bart Lautenbach and Adam Hannah for their support and giving me the time to do the writing; Tim for including me as an author and for his tireless efforts in editing my content; my family including my mother, Donna, I love you Dad, my brother Gary, sisters Debbie, Dara, and Denise; and finally my love to Kylie, Jacob, and Jolie for being so patient with daddy as he was taking time away from "play" to write this book.

I wish to thank, first and foremost, Tim Speed for giving me this opportunity to help him write this book. This would not have happened without his support. A very special thanks to my mentor, Raj Balasubramanian, for guiding me to grow both personally and professionally. Also, for motivating me to think beyond my potential.

Also, thanks to the IBM management team that provided approval to publish this book: Walter L Berthelsen, Jack Shoemaker, Luis Pineda, Mark Guerinot, and thanks to our sponsor, Steve Robinson. Thanks to Steve Robinson for writing the foreword on this book. Thanks to the Packt team for their help and support, specially Anugya Khurana and Martin Bell.

A very special thanks to my family for always being there for me. Also, I send thanks to Linda Speed for helping me with this book and providing some of the editing throughout the chapters. I would like to express my gratitude to Jon Czernel for encouraging me to do things beyond my regular scope of work.

Other acknowledgments include: Pam Fryer, Melanie Skinner, Louis Stanley, Leslie Hans, Brad Schauf, David Byrd, Robert Thietje, Stephen Cooke, Marc Galeazza, John Murphy, Barry Rosen, David R. Hinkle, Doug Parham, Gary Ernst, Kevin Mills, and Hunter Medney.