As economic and social factors continue steadily to shape the IT industry, we look at four compelling pressure points which have the potential to significantly affect IT careers over the following five years.
#1 Society
As society’s dependency on IT systems is growing, the demands on the experts who dream up, design and support these systems become ever more stringent. Computers are no more just the domain of engineering minds, children to grandmothers will also be up to speed and everyone in between. This makes the Internet more very important to society than it has ever been.
#2 Cloud Computing
Cloud computing is the presentation of a 3rd party service into your network. This really is another concept that is gaining momentum primarily consequently of recent advances in telecommunications, processing and storage capacity. This service model has the potential to rock technical roles within the IT workforce. Although it may possibly be more accurate to say that this model (if successful) would be the catalyst as opposed to the reason behind a shift in workforce skills demands.IT-Dienstleister Düsseldorf
#3 Internet Addresses
The present Internet address space known as IP version 4 is 95% depleted. Its successor is known as IP version 6. Interestingly, the (eventual) implementation of IP version 6 includes a huge potential to shape IT career profiles. Ironically, the potential with this new protocol is exactly the same potential dreaded by some large corporations of today. You see this protocol can give residential users the capability to take part in the Internet by serving information, rather than just receiving it. It can be said that this functionality is comparable to today’s’ peer-to-peer protocols on steroids!
It can also be possible that the IP version 6’s ‘next killer application’ will soon be one which harnesses this functionality to empower home users in a manner that is today extremely tough to attain for technical reasons pertaining to the wide spread usage of private network addressing.
#4 Link Capacity
The speed of connections to the Internet have already been increasing steadily for twenty years. As recent as the year 2000, dial up modems were the bond of choice. Today, dial up modems are painfully slow and not utilized by consumers in most elements of the world. 1 day, ADSL and ADSL2+ connections will soon be considered slow as well. The higher the bandwidth, the more functionality that individuals will have a way to transmit to our computers. And this will result in richer Internet experiences. Although these advances are in the telecommunications sector, it is probable that web developer technologies and careers will experience the best changes consequently of the advances.
Regardless of the catalyst, we could see here there are numerous market forces which can be shaping the Information Technology industry workforce. But as always, the will adapt and thrive and the forward thinking job candidates should yet again be capable to cash in.
What Could be the Role of Information Technology?
Strictly speaking, Information Technology (IT) has been influencing society for tens of thousands of years. Smoke signals, the abacus, writing, paper, pens and the printing press were all once considered the forefront of IT because those technologies were the newest and greatest in communication.
But today it is widely accepted that the forefront of IT lies in digital communications. Much like all historical Information Technology developments, digital communication technology is revolutionary with regards to society, business, defence and culture.
But what is it about digital communications that sets it besides other previous technological advances? What is the role that this technology can enjoy in modern society?
Firstly, IT acts as a facilitator. It is really a medium that permits large volumes of information to be stored, processed or transferred at lightning speed. What this means is that there is more details accessible to make decisions, maintain relationships, monitor markets or follow movements.
The power with this notion shouldn’t be underestimated, it allows people to make decisions centered on masses of up to date information. The military, educational institutions and large business have long understood the ability with this notion but it has only been in the last 10 years that mainstream society in addition has embraced the ability of information for both social movements and small business.
Secondly, Information Technology can be an enabler. Just a select minority of specialized companies in the world can claim that IT is their business. Most corporations and institutions use Information Technology to enable functions that drive their core business. This may include better communication between staff, suppliers or customers or it could include better asset management. Regardless of the function, digital communication makes the storage, processing or transfer of information more effective than ever before. However it is important to see that in essence it doesn’t change core businesses, ideals, ethics or movements. It just enables them to work at a greater scale a great deal more efficiently.
Lastly, Information Technology assumes the role of custodian. As data and information is amassed on nearly any subject you care to imagine, massive stores of data are emerging prepared to service any new requests. And therein lies the security paradox that modern Information Technology presents. One can argue that more available information makes our lives more effective, safer and richer. Whilst one other argument is that the very same information that provides these benefits can also be our achilles heal because of the security implications of unauthorized infiltration.
There’s little doubt that the role of information technology is directed and constrained by the very technology that defines it. Today, that technology permits us to collect, manipulate and communicate masses of information. As a consequence, the role of IT revolves around improving the efficiency, capacity, speed or accuracy of any elements that could benefit from the functions that modern Information Technology systems provide.