Acknowledgments

I would be remiss if I did not first of all mention my gratitude to God for blessing me throughout my life. I do nothing on my own. It is only through Him that I have the strength and wisdom to accomplish my goals.

When my father and his business partner asked me to take over a retail computer store in the mid-1990s, I had no idea that a BIG journey was just starting. So thanks, Wayne McDaniel (a.k.a. Dad) and Roy Green for seeing something in me that I didn’t even see in myself and for taking a chance on a very green techie. Also, thanks to my mom, Lucille McDaniel, for supporting my career changes over the years, even if you didn’t understand them. Thanks to Mike White for sharing your knowledge and giving me a basis on which to build my expertise over the coming years. Thanks to Zackie Bosarge, a great mentor, who gave me my first “real” job in the IT field at Alabama Institute for the Deaf and Blind.

Thanks also to my little family, my husband, Michael, and my son, Jonas. Thanks for being willing to have Friday night fun nights without me while I spent my extra time knee-deep in security topics. Thanks to Michael for always making sure I knew that everything was easier on a Mac. Thanks to Jonas for keeping mom humble by making sure she understood that you couldn’t see why someone was paying mom to write a book where Percy Jackson or Harry Potter was NOT the main character. I love you both immensely!

Pearson has put together an outstanding team to help me on my journey. Thanks to everyone at Pearson for polishing my work so brilliantly. Thanks especially to Chris Crayton and Troy McMillan for completing such thorough reviews of my work and even managing to make some great suggestions!

It is my wish that you, the reader, succeed in your IT certification and career goals. I wish you the very best.