Writing a book for the first time is a daunting experience regardless of the subject. I would like to thank the solid team at Packt Publishing—Riddhi Tuljapurkar for managing to keep us moving forward with endless patience as I struggled for time on several occasions and her thorough inputs on presentation, Shaon Basu for his initial guidance and encouragement, and Mohita Vyas for ensuring that the book is at the standard it should be. I would also like to thank the reviewers especially Craig Tolley, Anton Van Pelt, Dennis Van Remortel, Travis Scotto, and Neil Spellings, whose insightful inputs have helped turn this book from its original amateurish form into something (hopefully!) much more readable.

Being given the opportunity to write a book while being employed is also a matter of trust. I would like to thank my current and previous managers, Bal Garcha and Nicholas Ibourk, for their support and for resisting the worry that working on a book could impact the quality of my work.

Finally, as I learnt, a book doesn't get written in a day. I would like to thank my wife, Fanny, for understanding my ambitions and willing to forego our countless weekends and a fair share of evenings that we could have done something else with, and our families for their support during this time.