WHAT A DIFFERENCE A YEAR MAKES.As I sit in my home office in Maryland (unlike many of you I already worked from home, so that hasn’t changed), the first daffodils are appearing and the beautiful flowering trees are starting to bud. The vaccine news here and around the country seems to be getting more and more positive by the day, and there is a general feeling of real optimism that things might get back to closer to “normal” soon.
What I have noticed about the security industry over the years — but particularly in the past 12 months — is that it is by nature cautious, but optimistic. Last year, our April issue featured the first State of the Market story conducted during the pandemic, and there was a lot of uncertainty. There was also a lot of hope. Many integrators and manufacturers at that time felt the sudden shift of sands, as their once-predicted great year was anything but predictable.