Editor’s Note: What a Year It has Been

As 2010 draws to a close, we perform year-end reviews and plan for next year. What’s on your radar for 2011?

Lafe Low

As one year winds to a close and we gear up for the New Year, it’s almost an annual ritual to review the past while planning for the future. The economic ups and downs have continued to batter the economy and the job market. That forces you to demonstrate greater business value from your IT initiatives—often while dealing with budget cuts and staff reductions. That’s a tall order, and we salute your efforts.

Microsoft certainly had a busy year. There were massive upgrades to some of the platform-level products for which Microsoft is most renowned: SharePoint 2010, Exchange Server 2010, Office 2010, Windows Azure and SQL Azure, System Center, Forefront Protection Suite 2010, Dynamics GP 2010. Those are some major releases on major Microsoft platforms—especially SharePoint and Office. Those are both the engine and the fuel for enterprise collaboration. And working together—across departments, time zones and continents—will be a more of a significant factor than ever before as global enterprises continue to struggle to do more with less.

Looking forward to next year, we hope for a continuing slow and steady economic recovery. The news of the general economy is moderately encouraging, job growth is slowly gaining traction and consumers are starting to spend again. How is your business reacting to the slow turnaround? Intelligent IT infrastructure and processes are more important than ever to maximize productivity, increase efficiency, and make the most of every dollar and hour spent.

The pressure is still on, and will stay on for the foreseeable future. Let us know what you’re planning for the coming year, how much or how little things are improving in your industry, and how you plan to adjust your IT infrastructure to support your business in the still-struggling global economy.

Your New Year’s Resolution

On behalf of the entire staff at TechNet Magazine, I hope you and your family and friends have a safe and relaxing holiday season. I dare say after a year like this, we could all use a little down time. You can get a jump on making your New Year’s resolutions. Resolve to let us know what you think of what you read on the TechNet Magazine site. After all, you’re the reason we do what we do, so we want to ensure our targeted coverage is hitting the mark.

Send us your feedback. Sign up for our LinkedIn group, send us an e-mail at tnmag.microsoft.com or e-mail me directly.  And again, our best wishes for a happy and safe holiday season!

Lafe Low is the editor in chief of TechNet Magazine*. A veteran technology journalist, he’s also the former executive editor of 1105 Media’s* Redmond magazine. Contact him at llow@1105med.