December tends to be a time of reflection and planning for the year ahead. I know you’ve all experienced the consumerization of IT for quite some time, but the topic certainly heated up this year. With the vast array of PCs and devices available today, the proliferation of applications and an increasingly mobile workforce, you have a dramatically more dynamic environment to manage and secure than ever before. Windows helps address this challenge and helps you stay a step ahead by providing the ability to empower your company’s users while delivering enterprise-caliber capabilities to manage and keep your IT environment secure.

Device proliferation, ubiquitous wireless networks, fast growing cloud services and virtualization technologies will continue to fuel the consumerization trend. Key to taking advantage of this is strategic IT planning. As part of the planning process, the critical piece is having the right solutions to effectively manage your IT infrastructure and keep it secure. Those of you who have sound solutions in place to address management and security will be ahead of the curve.

Beyond consumerization, everyone continues to talk about the cloud. We’re thinking about security in the cloud – it’s clear that cloud services have evolved beyond futuristic technology and hype into a viable and cost saving option for customers. We’ll see more organizations adopt cloud-based technology, but with a heightened focus on security. As you think through your cloud strategy, Windows Intune is a great cloud service that makes PC management easy while keeping your computers secure and up-to-date.

And finally, we’ll continue to face economic challenges in the year ahead and many of you will be looking for ways to get the most out of your technology investments. We think more and more of you will make desktop virtualization part of your IT plans. With users expecting a reliable technology experience that offers anytime and anywhere access to applications to get their work done, virtualization is an industry mainstay. It’s a vital part of keeping your network secure while managing the growing number of devices employees are bringing into your organizations.

It’s clearly an exciting time to be in the technology industry. We’re looking forward to working with you to plan for next year with an eye toward helping you stay one step ahead. In the meantime, I want to say thank you. One of the things I love about my role is being able to directly engage with you to hear your feedback both the positive input on how Windows 7 is helping your business, but also the constructive so we’re always learning how to better serve you.

The Windows team and I look forward to working with you next year and in the meantime I hope you’re able to recharge your batteries and enjoy time with family and friends over the holidays.

Cheers to a great holiday season and a healthy and happy new year!