I would like to thank my amazing wife, Leslie. She is my balance amidst the craziness of being a geek in an ever-evolving occupation.
For my children, Lilly and Zane, I hope that my continued urge to write will stimulate yours.
The space here cannot contain the list of customers, colleagues, and friends whose conversations over the last 3 years have shaped my views on this topic. Some of those colleagues are noted directly in the text. I do not want to take credit for their ideas, but point to them instead as being people who helped shape my opinions about what is important in NFV.
I want to thank all of our technical reviewers for their insights.
I would finally like to give great thanks to my coauthor, Thomas Nadeau. We no longer work in the same company, but still manage to agree on topics (even agree to disagree) though we come from separate viewpoints. I hope THAT is inspirational to our readers.
I would like to first thank my wonderful wife, Katie, and two sons, Thomas Peter “monkey pants” and Henry Clifford. I cannot imagine being happy without you guys. Life is a journey, and I am glad you guys are walking the road with me. I would also like to thank my parents, Clement and Janina. Without your support and encouragement, I would likely have never made it as an engineer—or at least without Dad’s instruction at a young age, I would not be so adept at soldering, tinkering, and exploring new concepts now. It is important to not miss my best friend John LaPadula, who taught me that there is permanence in change, and that is one of those rules to live your life by.
Thank you to my many colleagues, present and past, who pushed me to stretch my imagination in the area of SDN. These folks include but are not limited to David Ward, Dave Meyer, Chris Wright, Sam Aldrin, and our too-soon departed friend Ping Pan.
There are many others from my journey at Cisco, Juniper, CA, and my current employer Brocade Communications who are too numerous to mention. I would like to thank the larger SDN and NFV community and my colleagues at the IETF, ONF, OpenStack, OPNFV, and Open Daylight Project. Thank you to Amy, Brian, and the rest of the staff at Elsevier. It’s been a longer-than-expected haul on this one, and we appreciate you supporting and encouraging us along the way.
Thank you to Vishwanathan Jayaraman, Sridhar Ramaswamy, Margaret Chiosi, Anton Ivanov, and Andrew McLachlan for their detailed technical reviews which made the book a whole lot better. Thank you to David Ward and Chris Wright for their insightful Forewords.
Last, but surely not least, I would like to give my heartfelt thanks to Ken Gray, my coauthor on this book. Without you grabbing the other oar of this boat, I am not sure I would have been able to row it myself to the end. Your contributions truly enhanced this book beyond anything I would have imagined myself. You pushed me beyond my limits now for a second time, and since it’s not killed me, I think I am better for it!