The UAG book is finally here!

Back in March of 2010, I was approached by Packt Publishing, from the UK, to write a book about UAG. Somehow, even though the product-family (eGap, IAG and UAG) have been out there for many years, no book was ever written about any of the members, and this would be a 1st. I’ve recruited my good friend and colleague Ran Dolev to help, and together we started developing the content and writing it. It was a long journey, but even with my son being born in the middle of it, we still were able to finish the 1st draft within less than 5 months. The writing quality was so high, that the publisher decided to publish the book as-is, without any editing, as a “RAW” book, which is somewhat equivalent to a Beta version. We could have had the book out as early as November, but that was the expected release date for SP1, so we decided to push the release and include SP1 information in the book as well.

On Nov 16th, we sent out the final version of the last chapter, and now, 2 months later, the book is finally in print!

https://amazon.com/o/asin/1849681627

As you can see, the book is not cheap. The reason for the high price is the high cost – the book is digitally printed “on demand” (as opposed to most books, which are printed in large quantities). This method has a higher cost per copy, but is more suitable for books that have a limited target-audience, like UAG.

I personally feel that this amount is easy to justify. After all, a single support call to Microsoft costs hundreds of dollars, so if this book can save you even one of those, it would have paid for itself.

If you’re still not sure, check out the publisher’s page to download a sample chapter (chapter 3)

https://www.packtpub.com/microsoft-forefront-uag-2010-administrators-handbook/book

If you’re reading this, then you’re most likely a UAG customer, and as such, there’s a very good chance I’ve worked with you personally at some point. If so, please know that this book is written from me to you. It comes from a personal place, out of love for the product, and for you, the customers. I hope you will feel that, as you read through the book, and that the experience will be more than just education, but also a fun ride.

Sincerely,

Erez Ben-Ari