Preface

Once, I read a book called The Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell. In this book, the author talks about the circumstances that lead people to get certain results in their areas of expertise, whatever they may be—music, sports, math, physics, and so on. The key aim of the author is to assert, based on facts and data, that there aren't people with extraordinary qualities, but the result depends on the effort, time, and energy devoted to that activity. The opportunity to stand out comes when we are in the right place at the right time. There is a popular saying, "Luck is what happens when capacity/competency and opportunity meet." I think Alexei Vladishev was lucky.

When I met Alexei in 2008, I was surprised by his simplicity and mild nature at the places where he worked, whether it was a training session, a lecture in an auditorium, a meeting with the client, or anything else. He's one of those guys who have in themselves a great guiding force for their actions and decisions, and who don't accept the label of a "pop star" in the open source world. In one of our conversations, he told me about one of the reasons for devoting his professional life to Zabbix SIA and his time to the development of Zabbix—improving people's lives. Simple, and without any "mega" aspiration! He only wanted to help people get their work done better. From this originate his other decisions regarding Zabbix; for example, there is no paid professional or enterprise version.

When I was invited to write this book, I thought about the points I have just described. I thought that it would be a great opportunity to bring to a greater number of people the knowledge that I had gained over the years working with Zabbix in large companies. It would also be a way to give to this field something in return for what I had obtained from it over the years. I hope this book will help you take full advantage of Zabbix, and may it contribute to the goal Alexei had—that of Zabbix being a tool for improving people's lives.