Nayan H.
►Project Management ►PMO ►Governance | Control ►Gadget Freak ►Tech Blogger ►Open Networker
What are the The Top 10 IT skills to have for the next few years, that will dominate the show??
Answers (39)
1. Virtualization (VMWare ESX, Microsoft HyperV) - No company will be without some form of virtualization in the next few years. The business case is too large to ignore.
2. IT Automation Tools (Kaseya, MOM, etc.) - IT departments are continuing to do more with less and these tools help IT departments manage their environments more efficiently.
3. Microsoft OS - I don't see Microsoft dominance significantly diminishing in the short term.
4. IP Telephony (Cisco, Broadsoft, ShoreTel, etc.) - More companies are converting to IP telephony either in premise based systems or hosted configurations.
5. Linux OS - Linux continues to increase it's share of server duties and is starting to make inroads in the desktop space especially in emerging markets.
6. Communication Skills - This is where most IT people fall down and the area that can show significant value to employers. There are very few positions left where IT people are not dealing with customers or stake-holders.
7. Security - Firewalls, VPN, AV/AS, Authentication & Identification have become more and more important to all businesses because of transactions occurring over the Internet.
8. Storage - SAN's, NAS's, Remote Storage are all creeping into smaller businesses. Knowledge of storage strategies is very valuable.
9. Disaster Recovery - More companies are looking for cost effective ways to recover from disasters because so much of their business relies on their technology infrastructure.
10. Search - Managing gobs of file data is useless without searching capabilities. Google and Microsoft both offer tools to search large volumes of file data and index the results.
1. Virtualization: VMWare and Microsoft appear to be the current leaders
2. Monitoring: There is a real shortage of people that use these tools full-time. The leaders are currently HP and IBM. Look for Microsoft (MOM/SCOM) to take the lead soon.
3. SAP: This may slow down before the other specialties listed here, but I do not think this industry has peaked just yet.
4. Data Center: Currently this field compliments IT, but is not integrated with IT. Look for the MIS/IT guys to work more closely with these engineers.
5. Storage: While IP storage has been hot, I think fibre channel will continue to lead the way. The drives (ex: SAS) themselves are also changing, but I don’t see as many employment opportunities on the engineering side.
6. Networking: You may be thinking Cisco, but HP ProCurve is a growing competitor. However, there’s more to this industry than switches and routers. The wireless markets may finally take off if WIMAX and similar initiatives ever materialize.
7. Programming Management: Those of you that are currently producing code (ex: .Net) should grab an MBA and get ready for management.
8. Project/Program Management: I’m sure we all know about the PMP certification, but there is a lot more to this field than that piece of paper. There will be a real need for technical professionals that add a PMP or Project+ to their resumes.
9. IT Process Improvement: Look for COBIT to be the next hot standard much like ITIL.
10. Architecture: There appears to be an effort to certify and define this specialty. Microsoft and The Open Group have spent a lot of time on this lately.
Clarification added August 27, 2008:
Cpacity Planning is mentioned below and should really be stressed. I.T. has been focused on implementing ITIL. That usually starts with incident and change management. You'd be considered advanced if you have a mature configuration management implementation. Capacity management is the next effort for most. Financials would come after that, but I do not yet see much happening there just yet.
I would add to the long list:
1. Capacity Planning
2. IT Compliance
Mariano I.
Open Source, Cloud Computing and Desktop Virtualization nerd
Best Answers in: Enterprise Software (1), Computers and Software (1)
I would add:
1. Green administration: many hw products are actually not just a piece of metal, but something that if well configured can bring costs savings on power, cooling, etc. (I'm thinking about products that support power and cooling management functionalities).
2. Unified Communications to consolidate old IT methodology with the mobile computing.
3. Business Process Management, Mashup & Metadata Management: the huge quantity of data is going to require tools that will easly allow to access enterprise and external data.
4. Business Intelligence: Data is continuously growing within enterprises and there is a need of 'control'.
5. Web Oriented Architecture & Real World Web: the integrated solution of these functionalities would allow people to access information of ANY kind from REALLY ANYwhere.
6. Enterprise Web 2.0 / Social Software: communicate, share info and get connected to people around the globe based on the type of information you need to access instead of a previous contact with the person is the new era of technology.
7. Computing Fabric & Virtualization: the 'pooled' data center is going to take place: virtualization of servers, storage, desktops, devices, etc. is going to get into the enterprises.
8. Security & Privacy. The web-ification of EVERYthing is going to require more security to protect data and identities. Identity & Access Management is already an item that most companies are taking under consideration. This will require secure accesses (SSL), and therefore a Web acceleration (SSL) is slower.
9. Blades: no matter which hw vendor you choose, this is going to be THE solution for everything that is not really HPC.
10. Open Source: plenty of solutions from the office productivity to the ERP, across the Identity Management, virtualization management, servers deployment, teaming & collaboration, Business Intelligence, BPM, CRM, groupware, monitoring, management, etc., are coming out on the market.
Some of these come from Gartner analysis, something else from what can be perceived talking to customers.
Links:
Clarification added August 27, 2008:
Just wanted to add a couple of words:
3., 4., 8., These items are to be part of IT Governance and IT Compliance.
7., I forgot to mention the Application virtualization AND the streaming capabilities of Operating Systems and Applications (think about ThinApp from VMware, and XenApp from Citrix as well). These functionalities can bring to the REAL Computing Fabric, where everything (hardware, OS, Apps, data, profiles, etc.) are not dependant from the system where it is supposed to run, but can be spread across servers, data centers, building, cities, countries, etc.
One more thing to mention (sorry, this will bring to 11 answers), is what somebody else has mentioned already and for which I'll send you to a blog post about the comunication skills of IT people: http://marigeek.blogspot.com/2008/08/prova.html
Hope this all helps.
1. Resourcefullness
2. Analytical mind
3. Communication skills
***These first three might not look like IT skills, but brother let me tell you, if they have all the book knowledge, but can't synthesize it in a real world environmnet & communicate with others, they are bascially worthless.***
4. Routing skills (especially higher end routing)
5. Microsoft Server level products
6. IP Telephony
7. Virtualization
8. Programming - that will never go away
9. Data Storage
10. Data Loss Mitigation/Data Recovery
I definitely agree with most of these answers. Here are a few of the top from my perspective.
1) Virtualization - Virtualization is a widely used term that means different things to different people. As you see OS Virtualization already being popular and will continue to be popular the one technology you don't here a lot of YET is Application Virtualization. Microsoft bought Softgrid a few years back and have turned the product into Microsoft Application Virtualization (MAV) which is part of the MDOP suite. As they make this product more scalable it will be a strong leader in the market in this space.
2) Mobility - This is already a hot topic and as virtualization, mobilty means something different to everyone. We have hit the day where wifi and evdo enabled laptops are running around and cellular data speeds have finally hit and acceptable speed for most. Now you will see applications being sent OTA more frequently and users having core business applications on their handsets. Who knows...wireless power could be big soon as well (probably not in the next 2-3 yrs though).
3) Going Green - Everything else in the world is going green why not IT? Hardware manufacturers are already deploying "Green" servers and laptops and we will see this be a BIG trend over the next few years. This will have a big impact on power consumption used by companies as well as many other factors.
4) Unified Communication and Network Convergence - This is already a big topic but you will see more and more companies deploying solutions and technologies around these concepts. The day of voice and data lines will be declining and a single data line (or multiple for redundancy) will be the way of the future (and already is to a certain degree).
5) QoS - With all the Network Convergence and Unified Communication initiatives you have to make sure you have good QoS over your network. Without it all the other initiatives fail. This will be a HUGE factor now and moving to the future as we see more dependency on the network.
6) ITIL and other Process Improvement set of Guidelines (such as CobiT which was already mentioned) - This is a very hot topic today and will continue to be in the future. With more and more regulations coming down these will be critical in a successful IT Organization.
My other thoughts were already touched on with others posts. IT is always changing and those who love it will never get bored!
Wanted to add one more:
Mobile development - this is quickly emerging as the next computing platform, and will have very large scale ramifications in the future (including opening a lot of new markets in 3rd world countries).
There are so many right answers to this question, it all depends on what aspect of IT you are asking/interested in. I would say a skill to master would be IT Service Delivery. We can deliver the latest and greatest technologies all day long but if we can't master supporting the business, then there's little value in providing the utilities for the business and therefore IT maintains its negative image in the eyes of the business. I believe that IT today and going forward needs to focus more on working with the business and meeting their needs rather than separating ourselves from the business and be looked at as a cost center.
Even I agree with most of the answers I would stress two or three of them, demands on the point of the view.
1)Programing or better say scripting - I never see the system which perfectly integrate within the system and do exactly what you want, the ability write small script and use schedule task is secret of good admin. (This of course includes to know command-line of both windows and unix + some other language, mostly Perl, tcl, awk or any Regular expressions capable language).
2) Searching, data mining and analytical skills - most of the time management what's to see some statistics and overviews, which means usually work wit tables and connect the information from more sources. This requires the the great knowledge of the system you are using or great searching skills and usually scripting skill and some knowledge about formatting of data.
In my job I'm providing lot of reports and overview's to management based on the data in or systems and thanks to those skill's I'm in 90% of cases able to avoid two hours of copy-pasting and get job done in 30 minutes. And it seems I will be providing some reports, at least next years over and over again even the requirements will change the main point will be still the same.
1. Virtualization (VMware, Hyper-V)
2. Green computing
3. Disaster recovery (SAN's)
4. SaaS (Software as a Service)
5. Security
6. Programing
7. Mac in the enterprise world
8. IT Automation (MOM)
9. Mobility
10. VoIP services
James Adeyemi F.
Technology Mastermind
Best Answers in: Computer Networking (1), Web Development (1)
Nice answers...let me add to the list:
1) Grid Computing
Its coming up and it would be forceful on developers to upgrade to this level. The is what powers the so-called Cloud Computing.
2) IPv6,
Many think IPv6 is the headache of only network engineers, but we would soon see that its even more important for software developers and startups
3) People Network Programming
Now this is not socket programming, its social network programming, Google is leading the pack with Friend Connect and many more is coming.
4) Any thing Image!
In this coming future, we would really know that image is everything!
This range from Image processing to computer vision to 3D Panorama and to video frames.
My list
1 Communication skills
2 Communication skills
3 Communication skills
4 Secure Remote Access
5 Virtualisation
6 Streaming applications
7 Terminal server
8 DataCentre
9 Disaster Recovery
10 Good sense of humor
Just to add on the long list:
1. Social networking knowledge
2. Utilizing mobile new mobile features for your application
Robert W.
CEO-Entrepreneur-Consultant-Partner
Best Answers in: Manufacturing (1), Project Management (1), Enterprise Software (1), Computers and Software (1)
ITIL
Disaster Recovery
Project Management
IT Security and Privacy
Virtualization
Content Management
IT Compliance
Mobile/Wireless
Healthcare Electronic Medical Records
A personality
Links:
Hi some of these have been mentioned so I have listed them as they come to mind.
Unified communications & VOIP
Hybrid networks
Mobile/Wireless technology
Virtualization
Disaster Recovery
Storage Area Networking & NAS
Project Management
IT Security and Privacy
Communication Skills
Problem Solver
Mohammed S.
IT project manager
Best Answers in: Change Management (1), Project Management (1), Enterprise Software (1), Software Development (1), Wireless (1)
Dear Nayan
This Is Big question lol and i said it really .don't worry, this is not definitive, but merely the opinions of a few agents. I'm sure if we'd polled others the list might have been slightly different.
for developer and Software i think the top ten is :
1. J2EE
2. .Net
3. C#
4. Project Management
5. Oracle 8 and 9i
6. SAP
7. Business Analysis
8. VB.net
9. NT Novell
10. Java
and New Hot Skills
The top three are definitely becoming very hot skills.
It's good to see Project Management up there. It is a much underrated skill.
Business Analysts are also less immune to offshore outsourcing, as they have to remain reasonably close to the business users.
SAP continues to do well and is taking market share from its rivals.
Siebel also gained an honourable mention.
Oracle continues to be very strong, and is also expected to gain even more market share in the coming years.
Honourable Mentions
Other skills that also received honourable mention for the future are some of those from before the downturn such as:-
SQL
Unix
C++
VB
Access
ASP
In fact SQL, Unix and C++ are still the most sought after skills currently, and anyone who has them should stand in good stead.
Those where you might find it a bit of a struggle in the next few years are the skills from before the previous downturn like Cobol, CICS, DB2 etc.
There is still quite a lively market for PL/I though.
As I said at the start, this is not a definitive list, but we thought it would be worthwhile to pass on what agents believe to be the skills that they think they will be looking for more and more in the next few years.
You will not be valuable to an organization over the long term if you focus only on technology skills. Technology skills may get you the interview, but rarely much more. The following are significantly more important:
1) Understanding the role of IT to the organization
The primary role of IT is information management with technology skills as a means to that end. Any technology (software or hardware) that does not enhance the organization's ability to manage information should be eliminated.
2) Understanding your organization's processes
How does the organization accomplish work? Learn how the people in the organization interact to conduct a process, and what language do they use? A word like "customer" can mean "potential customer", "current customer", or "previous customer" to the sales group, operations group, and market research group. Also, each group tends to have its own name for their portion of each process.
3) Gain contextual information outside your organization
Organizations have common needs, which you should learn to become immediately useful to the organization. Gain at least a basic understanding of financial accounting, inventory control, work/purchase order management, human resource processes, and other general business processes. This will significantly enhance your position in the organization and will be much more valuable in gaining other employment, if necessary.
4) Passionately embrace the needs of the organization
Understand the your only purpose in the organization is to solve the needs of others. The core of you job is your ability to work with others, not technology.
On the technology side, focus your learning so that the technology becomes an afterthought. Your thoughts should be focused on accomplishing the organizational goal, not on stumbling over some technological hurdle.
1) Become an expert of your Organization's technology
Learn ALL of the technology used in the organization. This will allow you to focus on the needs of the organization without having to waste time learning the technology first. Also, many organizations choose crippled or sub-standard technologies for portions of their system. Understanding what can and cannot be done with the technology is critical.
2) Learn the "opposing" technology
At a high level, application developers must learn database development, and vice versa. At a low level, if you understand a particular technology (e.g. VB), you should also learn the alternative (e.g. Java, PHP, Ruby, etc.) For example, my strengths in SQL Server and VB.NET development are partially due to years spent learning C++, ORACLE, and Java!
3) Learn or develop general principles and then apply them to your development situation
Gain a higher level understanding of your problem solving methods and never blindly follow someone else’s methods. Many of the common development methods lead to slow, bloated, bug-ridden software. Likewise, many database designs do not take into account the lifetime of the data in the system. The goal of software development should be to build the simplest solution to the problem while database design should be guided by data integrity, security, and reduction of I/O.
4) Spend time each day wandering around
Even if it is only minutes each day before your go to work, make sure you look around so as to get your bearings. The “hot” technology of today can be the worst thing to learn! If you wish to be a leader in your group, you will need to understand the likely future landscape. For example, two emerging trends are “cloud computing” and “safe applications”. A basic understanding of REST, WPF, Adobe AIR, Google Gears, etc can give you a technological foothold that learning Java would not.
Luke
http://techsentinel.wordpress.com/
Links:
Elia S.
Translational Genomics and Bioinformatics Expert
Best Answers in: Internationalization and Localization (1), Business Development (1)
I would add:
1. High performance computing
2. Health & Bio data handling
BPM
Metadata Management
Virtualization
Application Integration
Social Network
Any talent in any field...
Roshan S.
Founder of 15+ Startups - Gloscon, Openkick, Reputa, Kosansh, Citiplots. Also a Technologist,Mentor, Investor & Speaker
Best Answers in: Web Development (4), Intellectual Property (1), E-Commerce (1)
1) Semantic Web
2) High Performance Computing
3) Linux Administration
4) Content Management Systems and Web Frameworks - Drupal, Ruby on Rails, Django
5) Virtualization
6) Localization (Multilingual Content)
7) VOIP + Web TV tighter convergence
8) Flash Programming and Video Editing
9) Digital Money
10) SEO / SEM / SMM - to dominate search engine rankings.
Good to see the answers posted here, havn't seen anything figured about DWH needs for future as more & more data accumlating everyday.
MS R.
Chief Technology Officer at Rural Shores Business Services
Best Answers in: Computers and Software (2), Information Security (2), Regulation and Compliance (1), Corporate Law (1)
Dear Nayan,
From an individual's perspective I recommend one to have proficiency/ excellence in one or more of the following:
a) Knowledge in Mathematics, Modeling and Simulations.
b) Infrastructure - Networking (LAN/ WAN), Unified Communications, Mobile, WiMax, WiFi etc.
c) Information Security - Network Security (Firewalls, IDS/ IPS, Anti Malware etc.), Security Audits, Vulnerability Management, Risk Management, Encryption, etc.
d) Database Technologies - Data Mining, Very Large Databases etc. etc.
e) Natural Language Processing
f) VLSI, Data Bus, Parallel Computing and other Hardware Technologies
g) Web Technologies - Web 2, HTML, XML etc.
h) Scripting Technologies
i) Operating Systems - they keep evolving, and need to be in constant touch.
j) Enterprise Applications Processes like Supply Chain, Finance Mgmt, Engineering Scheduling etc. etc.
From long term perspective, it is important to be proficient in technologies rather than products or tools. As people move from one company to another, there will be a need to cross train across various products. Products keep changing all the time, and one needs to be in constant refresh mode. For eg., Good Programs are not c or c++ or Java or Ada or whatever, it is the algorithms employed, robustness of engineering etc. Similarly, Oracle may be the market leader, but not the only database product.
with best wishes,
Commander MS Raghunath (Retd)
1. Testing (Performance & Automation Testing)
2. Virtualization (VMWare ESX, Microsoft HyperV)
3. Risk Management
4. Security
5. Search & File Storage
6. Mobile computing
7. Disaster recovery (SAN's)
8. Gaming Sftware Development
9. VOIP Services
10. Maybe Programming
Massimiliano F.
Director - ICT Support Centre at Main Communications & Information Systems Centre
Observation skills (take a careful look all around)
Understanding needs
Versatility/Adaptability
Communication skills (listening/speeching in more then one language)
Leadership
Program/Project Management
Security
Virtualization
Data management
System integration
Emotional Intelligence
Simone C.
P2P/Community & Co-design Advisor presso openPICUS
Best Answers in: Computers and Software (1), Web Development (1)
Just to give my small contribution, keeping in mind that you're referring to 2018 ;) and without building a list of hundred's of terms (containing all)
Embedded Systems + Distributed systems + Consumer electronics: I see a real convergence in electronics, smaller chipsets with increased potential every day
New Interactions design: we'll need someone able to rethink how to access applications and services (new devices, new places, etc...)
Open Source development model: not only in software industry but also in content production and product packetization
Licensing expertise: in conjunction with OSS, i believe that, especially those that will work building company's offering, will need much expertise on this
Thin clients + Cloud computing + Virtualization: more in general all that skills involved in the transition from owned infrastracture to On-Demand infrastructure
Information Lifecycle Management and ECM
Semantic and M2M paradigms
jm2c
Neil R.
strategy consultant at zen strategy
Best Answers in: Computers and Software (9), Planning (8), Web Development (4), E-Commerce (2), Enterprise Software (2), Software Development (2), Mentoring (1), Budgeting (1), Staffing and Recruiting (1), Internet Marketing (1), Customer Relationship Management (1), Search Marketing (1), Career Management (1), Professional Networking (1), Incorporation (1), Small Business (1), Energy and Development (1), Blogging (1), Computer Networking (1), Databases (1), Information Security (1)
1: Ability to provide what your client wants
2: An open mind to learn about new technologies as they emerge
3: Ability to provide what your client wants
4: Don't fall in love with a technology just because you're familiar with it
5: Ability to provide what your client wants
6: Awareness of all the factors surrounding your proposition
7: Ability to provide what your client wants
8: Embrace change with open arms
9: Ability to provide what your client wants
10: Don't believe everything you're told but listen all the same
Did I mention its important to listen to what your client wants to do, rather what you want to sell him?
Learn to network with experts in a specific field and accept that there is always someone better than you in a particular discipline. Never be too precious about your own abilities.
I was surprised no one actually mentioned Utility Computing (UC) as a top skill to have.
UC though mainly a concept and an amalgamation of technologies would be where the industry strives towards. With rising costs of infrastructure and organizations looking to cut costs, UC based solutions would be something organizations would be primarily looking at in order to reduce capital investment and maximize return on investment.
Gartner predicts Small and Medium businesses (SMBs) to generate a substantial portion of revenues for IT and Outsourcing firms over a time frame over the next 10 to 15 years. Looking at the limited IT budgets available to such firms and their increasing need for computing solutions it would be no surprise to see them moving towards considering UC based solutions.
These solutions could be as limited as going for a pay per usage model (like Amazon S3) for their server and storage needs or outsourcing their entire application portfolio to service providers.
Extent of adoption and acceptance is something that will be gradual and become more prevalent with advances in the field.
I see there's no mention (I may have missed it) of agile skills. I think one of the biggest skills any IT person would need is the ability work in an "agile" environment. We're in a new(ish) era of ever changing needs and evolving businesses that require constant change in direction in a controlled fashion. Having some exposure to on of the agile methodologies (like SCRUM or XP) will definitely stand you in good stead.
Links:
Being a recruitment consultant (IT Banking/Finance) I dont have the in-depth tech knowledge as you gifted chaps but I can give you my point of view from a recruitment perspective. Hope it's helpful;
1. .NET/C# - In the last 18 months an increasing number of Investment Banks have switched to Microsoft technologies. Rapidly over taking Java and C++ (in particluar) as the OO language of choice
2. Silverlight / Win FX
3. Java/J2EE
4. Agile Methodolgies
5. Strong communication skills combined with a strong analytical mind and logical approach to solving complex problems, then being able to commincate this to the business - at all levels.
6. Grid Computing
7. Sound business knowledge, some banks don't have BA's and expect the technologists/developers to have an in depth knowledge of the business product and commincate directly with the traders and other business users.
8. Virtualization
9. Embedded Systems + Distributed systems + Consumer electronics: I see a real convergence in electronics, smaller chipsets with increased potential every day - I completely agree with this.
10. Finding a reliable and knowledgeable recruitment consultant who can keep you in touch with the best roles on the market, this can be a very rewarding and mutually beneficial long term partnership. The most succesful and high end earners are those who have are well connected and have made the right moves early in their career.
I am happy to discuss the London, UK market with you and specialise in sourcing 1st Class developers for leading Banking / Hedge Fund clients.
vbahram@astoncarter.co.uk
IT Skills are ever changing but as pointed out there are some which will last for quite sometime.
i would like to add one more skill which has not been talked about much
Enterprise Resource Planning(ERP) knowledge-With a robust growth predicted for future companies esepcially manufacturing and capital goods comapnies,resource planning is going to play a vital role.The supply chain optimisation alone would become the deciding factor for how companies survive the cut-throat competition.And ERP is the answer to cost-effective integration and optimisation of various business processes
