About the Author

Alex Bretet is a certified Java and Spring Integration engineer. Currently working at Thunderhead, a pioneer company and global actor among SaaS providers, he has a rich developer background from different industries including energy, insurance, finance, and the Internet.

Captivated by the Internet's communication capabilities and by start-ups, he believes in skunk development outcomes (when groups of like-minded people together achieve unbelievable targets on tight deadlines).

He also defends a number of open source initiatives and indeed Spring technologies, whose pragmatism constantly disrupts the most established practices and offers valuable alternatives for the benefit of all.

You can contact him at <alex.bretet@gmail.com> or follow him on Twitter at @abretet

I would like first to thank all the people who have been directly related to this book, starting with all the reviewers, content development editors, technical and acquisition editors.

My thoughts go to my French engineering school and all the people I've met since then who have expressed and communicated their enthusiasm for the technology.

I am very grateful for being able to work in the IT industry nowadays. Thank you to all the elements around me that supported me going in this direction. When my interest for this topic grew, I couldn't imagine making a career out of it.

Writing this book has been a long project. I must mention my partner, Helena, for her patience and support throughout these months; my family and friends, who have been a source of encouragement; my dad, a source of inspiration.

My best regards go to Packt Publishing for producing this book and endorsing the project.

I acknowledge the expertise from the engineers at Pivotal Software, Inc. and the Spring community, their approachable set of documentation and their official references.

Finally, I want to thank you, who are reading these lines and have probably purchased this book. I hope it will provide you help, spark, and Big Picture.