Predictions

By Stephanie Jordan
in

A fun exercise in the beginning of the year is to make predictions. This year, as in years past, I asked a handful of industry experts to tell us what he or she thought the coming year would bring, or to offer a tip or piece of advice that should be considered this year. I wish we could have included more, but we have space constraints.

As the predictions were submitted, I reviewed them wondering if there would be significant overlap in thoughts. I try not to give direction on what should be offered, other than the restriction of word count. (That space constraint thing again.) As in other years, the predictions were diverse. It made me think about my own predictions. In most ways my predictions echo theirs. SaaS will continue in its appeal, more organizations will invest in virtualization, malware will continue in its sophistication and cunning, especially as it pertains to social networks, and the economy will touch and alter in ways we may not expect. Security will remain important. 2009 will bring with it lots of lessons. My hope is that Messaging News will be able to pass along those lessons, best practices, tips, advice and trends.

One of the challenges we face at Messaging News is that the term messaging is growing to encompass so much more than email and IM. This became especially apparent when the publisher and I recently worked on creating a single line to identify our coverage area. The complexity of how everything relates and inter-relates makes for a lot to keep up with. We appreciate our relationships with industry experts and our readers, and how they help us stay in tune with everything that messaging has become.

On behalf of all of us at Messaging News, we thank all of the prognosticators for sharing thoughts on the year ahead. Our wish to all is for prosperity, or at least to hang on. Send us comments on the stories in this issue, or for future story ideas. As always, we enjoy hearing from you.

Published February 1, 2009