About the Authors

Andreas Baumgarten is a Microsoft MVP and works as an IT Architect with the German IT service provider H&D International Group. He has been working as an IT professional for more than 20 years. Microsoft technologies have always accompanied him, and he can also look back on more than 14 years' experience as a Microsoft Certified Trainer.

Since 2008, he has been responsible for the field of Microsoft System Center technology consulting and ever since has taken part in Microsoft System Center Service Manager 2010, 2012, and 2012 R2; additionally, he has participated in the Microsoft System Center Orchestrator 2012 and 2012 R2 Technology Adoption Program with H&D.

With his deep inside-technology know-how and his broad experience across the Microsoft System Center product family and IT management, he now designs and develops private and hybrid cloud solutions for customers all over Germany and Europe.

In October 2012, 2013, and 2014, he was awarded the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) title for System Center Cloud and Datacenter Management.

I would like to thank my colleague Jörg Tonn from H&D International Group for his helping hand and support with Microsoft System Center 2012 Operations Manager.

The book was only possible due to the efforts of a great team. I would like to acknowledge and thank my co-authors Ronnie Isherwood and Susan Roesner.

Ronnie Isherwood, MCITP, MBCS, is a technology entrepreneur who has worked in the IT industry for more than 20 years including 15 years' experience in delivering infrastructure, systems management, and virtualization technologies to government, financial, and legal companies. He has worked with Microsoft Learning Partners as a subject matter expert and technical reviewer contributing to several MCSE courses on server and cloud. In 2014, he co-founded a software development company, JE3.COM, where he works on designing infrastructure services and software solutions for the financial services industry. Ronnie is committed to the IT community and is the founder of a Microsoft Windows user group and Chairman of BCS, The Charted Institute for IT, Jersey.

I'd like to thank Samuel Erskine for giving me this opportunity and Mélinda Isherwood for supporting me tirelessly with all my technology endeavours. I would also like to acknowledge and thank my co-authors Andreas Baumgarten and Susan Roesner for their unwavering dedication and without whom this title would not have been possible.

Susan Roesner is an IT Architect with expertise in a wide range of technologies and industries (public and private), including Fortune 500 organizations. Since 2009, she has been working in Microsoft System Center technology / IT management consulting and was responsible for Microsoft System Center Virtual Machine Manager 2010, 2012, and 2012 R2, and the Microsoft System Center Data Protection Manager 2010, 2012, 2012 R2 Technology Adoption Program, in addition to all compliance aspects within the System Center family.

Before joining H&D International Group, she worked in the finance sector and in Compliance / IT Security, working on projects such as SOX and ISMS implementations, on compliance audits (internal and external), and compliance policy/process creation.

First, I want to give a big thank you to Samuel Erskine for his great and challenging reviews that drove me toward better clarity on information I wanted to provide in the chapters. He also made it quite easy for me, as a first-time author, to understand the processes and get the job done. I also want to give thanks to Dejan Milic from H&D International Group for providing me with in-depth answers to all my questions on System Center 2012 R2 Configuration Manager.

I should also thank the team at Packt Publishing for working with us through this project. Thanks to Arvind for making sure we stuck to the schedule and to James Jones for making it so easy to work with him and for answering all my questions. Also, thanks to Stephan Wibier and Nico Sienaert, who helped make the chapters so much better with their comments and feedback.

Lastly, I want to thank my co-author, Andreas Baumgarten, who provided valuable ideas for several of the chapters and was always there when things needed to get done. Thank you to Ronnie Isherwood who took over from Samuel Erskine on such short notice to complete the last chapters and help make the book better.