January is named after Janus, the two-faced Roman deity of beginnings and endings, who reportedly was able to look both forward and back. So for our Jan. 1 issue, we pay homage to the mythological immortal with our seventh annual Technology of the Year Awards, an analysis of where IT has been and where it’s going in 2007.

“Depending on where you look, 2006 was a year of transition, of maturation, and of strange twists,” notes Test Center Executive Editor Doug Dineley. “SOA took a crash course in governance, virtualization moved out of the test labs and into production environments, and security experts started to reassess their approaches to anti-virus and intrusion prevention. And of course, x86 established itself as the tide that lifts all boats.” Next year promises an even faster pace, as Web 2.0, open source, and smarter network storage threaten to remake the once stodgy IT landscape. “These are interesting times in IT,” adds Dineley, “and interesting times often translate into innovative new products and technologies.”

While I’m on the subject of new products, let me introduce a few fresh InfoWorld efforts. In print we’re adding a late-breaking news section, “On Deadline” for up-to-date coverage. We’ve also upgraded David L. Margulius’ From the Analysts column, changing its name to Enterprise Insight and giving Dave a little more real estate -- and latitude -- for his wry take on IT events, news, and trends.

Meanwhile online, we’ve given the InfoWorld.com home page a Web 2.0-ish face-lift, highlighting video and podcasts, as well as discussion groups and user blogs from our IT Exec-Connect community. And we welcome longtime Byte.com columnist Martin Heller to our blog roster, as he launches Strategic Developer.

So on to 2007! And from here on, no looking back.