Happy 2020 to you, the intrepid security professional. I do hope that you managed some well-deserved downtime over the holiday period (for most of the world, anyway). And, if you’re like many people in the world, you’re either already back in the rat-race or preparing to lace up your runners for a fresh start next week.
However, I have to tell you – at least from my own personal experience this year – that everything you left sitting on your desk or in your inbox will have run together, mutated and created un-holy love children with big pointy teeth and a huge appetite to devour you whole the moment your backside touches your regular workplace support surface.
As you might’ve noticed, I took a bit of a break myself over the last few weeks. Mostly this was just out of necessity given an unexpected, last-minute trip and happy holiday surprise of getting a large portion of the family together in one place for the first time in a couple of years.
And apart from the jet lag, overwhelmed allergies due to diabolical climate changes on either end of the trip and a valiant effort to teeter on the healthy side of being out of action, it was a good break. The kids are happy to see Grandma, the holiday puzzle I mentioned a few days ago is starting to come together, and we’ve spent some good times with friends and consumed obscene amounts of food—beverages optional.
However, like you may be facing yourself, I have some deadlines looming large in the headlights. Work on completing the final version of The Definitive Guide to The Agile Security System™ proceeds as the list of people waiting to receive it when it ships later this month continues to grow—even as 2019 drew to a close. The final edits and revisions of the January issue of the Security Sanity™ print newsletter on measuring and communicating the value of your security program are nearly ready to be sent to the printer on Monday, and, of course, we’re gearing up to the next run of the Building Effective Security Architectures online learning experience next month.
So, if your plate is anything like mine, it means that the only thing that’s really changed from the last time you were at work is the last two digits of the year and the fact that anything you didn’t get finished before you left is even further behind than it was before.
No, this isn’t a “Rah, Rah!” pep talk kind of email that 2020 is going to be all rainbows, rose petals and eating Bon Bons on the couch in front of the new line-up of Disney+ Star Wars and Marvel offerings. I don’t want to insult your intelligence.
The fact is, as security professionals, we have a tough job to do. Most of the time, we wouldn’t be doing anything else because we love the challenge, or we love trying to solve the problems we face in more elegant and efficient ways than we did before. But sometimes, like many things, it gets tense…it gets hairy…and it makes us want to pull our hair out by the roots.
The upside of all this is that while you might FEEL like the Lone Security Ranger, riding solo through the wastelands of threats, vendor controls and the sprawl of the organization you’re trying to protect…
…you don’t have to figure it all out by yourself.
Some of us have been in this fight for quite a while, and the real key to keeping your sanity as a security professional is being able to learn, adapt and leverage the work the rest of us – and, most importantly, your own good self – has done before so that you can work better, faster, be more effective and more clearly communicate the value of what you do to those who need to hear it.
I mentioned a few of the ways you can leverage everything I’ve learned in over 25 years of my own professional career as a technology and security architect, management consultant and entrepreneur, and, especially if you’re a practicing security architect looking to maximize the leverage of formal methodologies like SABSA, there are a few ways I can help you dramatically “do better work” in 2020 than you were able to do in 2019.
If you prefer the DIY option, you can still pre-order the book here (and, as of now, I can officially say there won’t be a proper sales page until it’s final, it’s gone to the printer and the price has gone up by $123): https://archistry.com/go/dgpo.
If you prefer to get actionable, topic-based insights delivered to your door every month on something I think every security architect should know, then you can subscribe to the newsletter in time to get the February issue here: https://securitysanity.com
If you prefer to learn how to build SABSA security architectures based on a system of principles, practices and perspectives forged in the fires of my own internal and client security delivery work since 2005 as part of a live cohort of people working together every week to grow your collective architecture skills, then you can sign up for the course here: https://archistry.com/besa
Or…if you have something else in mind and would prefer to get weekly coaching and mentoring calls with me as we work together to tackle the problems you’re facing in your organization, then just hit reply and let’s talk about it.
Whether I can help you directly or not, I do wish you as much personal and professional success this year as you can possibly imagine, and I’d like to thank you for being part of the Archistry community.
Stay safe,
ast
—
Andrew S. Townley
Archistry Chief Executive
