Acknowledgments

Thank you to all of the many people that took the time to share important information about technology and government regulations. Staffs at the FCC and the Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Cable provided clear explanations of national and state regulations. Marketing Consultant David Gitner was a terrific source of information on storage systems. Geoff Bennett, Director, Solutions and Technology at Infinera, provided clear information about fiber-optic multiplexers, and Mike Quan, cofounder of Boston 360, illuminated information about virtual reality. James Chapman, Senior Product Manager at Ipswich, spoke with me about network management systems. Bob Xavier, Director, Systems and Networks at Berklee College of Music, gave me a tour of Berklee’ IT department and discussed the issues involved in managing merging IT systems when colleges merge.

As always, Carly Premo Mello, IT Director, and Jamie V. Schiavone, Network Manager for Framingham, Massachusetts, discussed the challenges of managing security and storage networks. Joe Mulvey, IT director for Newton, Massachusetts, and his staff spent time discussing their broadband, Wi-Fi, and IT structures and gave me a tour of their data center. Mark Roberts, the Chief Marketing Officer at the former Shortel (now Mitel), discussed specialty applications using VoIP technology. All of these people provided insights into real-world issues.

Thank you also to Fernando Mousinho, Cisco Systems Director of Product Management for Endpoints, for his lucid explanation of Cisco Systems’ office products and video conferencing services. Many thanks to Dave Parks, former Director of Segment Marketing at Ciena Corporation, for his generosity in providing information on Ciena’ broadband hardware and software. Dave has been an enormous source of information for earlier editions of my book as well as for this sixth edition as has Joe McGrath, VP of Information Technologies, Sage Therapeutics. Thanks to Kevin Klett, VP of Product Management & Marketing at 128 Technology for his lucid explanations of their stateful routing software.

Thanks to Rick Swiderski, VP and General Manager at NEP Group, for his informative discussions of the challenges facing rural telephone companies. His firsthand knowledge was tremendously helpful. Thanks also to Kurt Raaflaub, head of strategic solutions marketing at ADTRAN. Kurt and his staff provided important information on the use of copper cabling connections to fiber cabling to bring high-speed broadband to rural areas. Glenn Axelrod of Axelrod Broadcast Solutions illuminated the details behind multiplexing technologies used in cable TV networks. Sal Tuzzeo at Nielsen discussed consumer trends in viewing television. Thanks as well to Joanta Stanke, Research Director at Point Topic Ltd,, for her information and graphic on Internet access patterns worldwide. Special appreciation to Mohammad Zulqarnain, Distinguished Architect of Global Solutions at Verizon Communications. Mohammad illuminated the important features and advantages of software defined networks. He further provided examples of how enterprises and branch offices are deploying the technology.

A special thank you to Tom Case, Chief Information Officer for the town of Lexington Massachusetts, who met with me and discussed the day-to-day issues involved in designing and maintaining municipal networks. A thank you also to Donna Drudik and Jim Thompson, California 911 Telecommunications Engineers, for discussing the importance and time criticality for handling calls to 911 emergency centers. Jim also provided information on technologies used for deploying emergency telecommunications services for handling text messages, mobile, and landline calls at emergency call centers. Thanks to Ben, vice president of security for a major financial company. Ben illuminated the challenges and technologies deployed to protect enterprises from hackers. And appreciation to Keith Wise for valuable assistance with the Study Guide.

And finally, thank you to the many people I spoke with that preferred to not have their names used. I appreciate the information each of you shared. Most importantly, thank you to my husband Bob Dodd who read everything I wrote multiple times and provided common sense advice on how to improve sections to clarify important concepts.