There are constants in life that you can rely on - so Christmas is just around the corner. But this does not diminish the impression that we live in a time in which hardly anything stays the way it is, especially in the environment in which we operate with the topics of data analysis, ICS and integrated risk management.

Limits set in the past by the company's own infrastructure are blown by the possibilities of the cloud. Agile development replaces classical methods; column-based in-memory databases make it possible to react almost in real time to changes even within the largest data sets. Machine learning methods are used in applications for business and private users, and the blockchain technology has even passed its first peak in the Gartner Hype Cycle. (https://www.gartner.com/smarterwithgartner/5-trends-emerge-in-gartner-hype-cycle-for-emergi ng-tech nologies-2018/)

We have provided you with a wide range of information throughout 2018, from SAP@ topics with a focus on data analysis to product information to ACL GRC, to reports on exciting events in which we participated and where we stayed on the ball for you.

We are certain that the dynamic described will not diminish in the future, but will intensify. However,this does not prevent us from looking forward to this presumably more dynamic future calmly and with positive expectations. Both our software and our services are at the pulse of time, and also for the next years we are well prepared with our innovations - and you with us.

Even though we will be celebrating our 15th anniversary next year, we still feel like a young company; we can't claim to be a start-up anymore, but nowadays we still keep this in mind in order to maintain the necessary level of innovation and never lose the quest for the best solution. We think we are doing quite well, and I hope you share that opinion.

Behind every healthy, good company there is also a professional team of employees who live internally, which is visible to the outside for our customers. This is why, not only in the coming year, we will focus not only on the relationship with our customers and business partners, but also on the fact that our team here at dab:GmbH will maintain the excellent cohesion, empathy and humanity as well as the professionalism and great motivation that have brought us so far over the past 15 years.

My thanks at this point therefore go of course to you as our customer, business partner or reader of our blog, but also to our great team at dab:GmbH, which makes working together a pleasure. I wish everyone a Merry Christmas, health and happiness in the New Year, which we also look forward to with joy because of the upcoming Jubilee.