This year was a year like no other. A new business venture is a year old and is well on its way to being an established company with plenty of potential. A number of new clients have been established as the recession causes people to look at the opportunities presented and the need to take chances when the circumstances are right.
Windows 8 and Server 2012 put in an appearance but the jury is still out. Windows Tablets are still waiting for their time in the spotlight (and I am waiting on the Dell XPS 12 to arrive in a few weeks time as my new work machine).
Virtualisation remained the focus of most organisations IT strategies – in fact I didn’t install a single non-virtualised platform this last twelve months. Desktop virtualisation seems to be stalled – clients don’t appear to have the appetite for it or the budget as yet.
This ends the second year of a blog each working day and it still surprises me that there is some much happening to facilitate that. I hope to continue this next year but other commitments may make that hard to fulfil. The site gained 60,000 visits this year so hopefully others are getting some benefit from the tips and experiences that get recorded here.
Highlights
New clients and new projects – its been an interesting year and many diverse projects have been undertaken. Although the new venture is primarily support focused – very few clients require only support – many need help with strategy and problem solving.
Lowlights
Seeing a client struggle with an IT company refusing to hand over passwords and credentials when they decided to move to another support organisation.
Working with a client to resolve a hardware issue that meant a new solution performed worse that the previous 5 year old option. Watching the hardware supplier take weeks to accept that their specification was wrong and then asking the client to pay to resolve.
Hopes
IBM Lotus Notes & Domino enters the New Year with the probable release of version 9 in the first quarter. This could be the biggest single change to the platform in very many years. I suspect I will see many articles about it in this blog in 2013.
In Closure
On a personal level – 2012 was a difficult year that culminated in my mum passing away. She is greatly missed and remains an inspiration to me. Her “can do” attitude and her real commitment to helping others across her entire career as a midwife will stay with me always. In so many ways she was a woman ahead of her time and she blazed a trial that many will follow rather than lead. Above all – doing your best – was her only request to anyone.
R.I.P.