12.28.07
New year, new ideas.
Traditionally this time of year is when we reflect on the year that’s gone and plan and look forward to the new year ahead.
I have to admit I’m not one for making ‘New Years Resolutions’ but I know that it works for some. I do feel though that, in the hosting industry, we should actually take a little time to review what’s happened in 2007 and see what we can do better in 2008.
The last year was one of stark contrasts for me. I saw the dawning of a new acceptance of the SaaS (Software as a Service) paradigm by a much larger section of the hosting industry, the realisation that our customers are becoming more and more aware of what it means to remove the boundaries between the ‘office’ and the internet and the value that can be derived from doing this. And I saw some of the most innovative uses for the current technologies being used to deliver real, usable poroducts to the customers too. The flip side was that I still saw too many hosters resting on their laurels, backing away from risk and hiding in their own history. “It worked before, it’ll work again!” may be true but it represents an element of stagnation which is almost the antithesis of where we came from. We were a set of risk-takers who didn’t follow the market, didn’t wait for someone else to come up with a solution and say ‘Look, me too’, we defined the market, we showed what was possible and how things should be done.
To this end I have one wish and one “Resolution” for the year ahead… I will encourage our industry to innovate, to break the moulds, to stop selling hosting by the numbers and start offering services which our, much larger, customer base need and will want. In short 2008 will be the year in which our industry will evolve further and faster away from the glorious geek-dom in which we’ve dwelt and into the bright lights and fresh air of the consumer market space and we’ll do this with product everyone can understand and everyone will want. We’ll do it because it’s right and because we can, not just because someone gave us a “solution” which made it easy.
It’ll be hard work, it’ll take effort and courage and there will be those who fall by the wayside. These are the things we MUST accept if we are to move forward. But it must and will happen.
Good luck to us all and I can’t wait!! 
- J.
