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Don’t despair, the best is yet to come

The old man of 2009 is hobbling away into the distance on his gnarled cane, with most of us politely, but vigorously ushering him out like some distant relative whose self-defeating arrogance and loud, vacuous words have seen him overstay his welcome at Thanksgiving yet again.

Man, have we seen our troubles? So, of course, we're ready to send a sometimes surly, often sporadic, frequently vacillating, occasionally noxious, and never humdrum 2009 off on that silly cane of his… that, by the way, he bought during one of those ‘everything must go' sales at Family Dollar or Eddie Bauer or one of those countless other stores that filed for bankruptcy this year. And if yours wasn't on this long list of shuttered businesses in 2009, you definitely faced some difficult decisions.

Many of the CISOs with whom I've spoken first saw projects they thought had been approved in late in 2008 getting postponed or nixed when the reality that is 2009 became clear during its early months. Later, though, traveling and/or hiring freezes hit. In some cases, layoffs occurred. In others, furloughs allowed a company to stay the course.

Troubles? Yup, we've seen them. But, hope still reigns. Soon, grumpy ole' 2009 will be replaced with the dazzling, plump baby of 2010. With the start of our next year, we're all of us looking for some signs of revitalization – and not just on a macro level. We want it to be felt from big picture to small. Will it happen?

Of course, we all know it's not going to be quick and it will take so much more work and planning and teamwork and a ginormous dose of original thinking alongside inventive ideas. But, we all have them – especially in this space, where products, services and the technology on which we rely change more quickly than in any other industry.

That's our saving grace, really. It was just with last month's issue that SC Magazine celebrated its 20th anniversary and saw the support of just-as-old industry players sending us their congratulations. We witnessed tons of innovation and no shortage of pioneering ideas in our first Security Innovators Throwdown at this year's SC World Congress. Speaking of which, we experienced a great surge in attendance at this our second conference and expo – despite the cruddy economic landscape. On top of this, we launched our SC World Congress 24/7 interactive online environment for readers to gain insight and guidance from a whole host of experts everyday. And, in that space every month, we hold all kinds of events on the hottest topics to arm our readers with the newest, most useful information to keep their organizations' infrastructures secure. Then there are our SC Magazine Roundtable events, podcasts, research projects and so much more.

Sure, all of us this year have had some troubles. Yet we're weathering them and even, in many instances, surmounting them, so we can afford to look forward. We've survived that dastardly 2009 and now have a long-awaited New Year during which we can plant some more seeds of recovery.

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