In-Depth

IT Skills Poised To Pay

Advances in mobility, cloud, Big Data, DevOps and digital delivery, plus the shift to more rapid release cycles of software and services, are enabling businesses to become more agile. IT workforce research and analyst firm Foote Partners assesses the IT skills gap these trends are creating, their impact on salaries and where the demand for expertise is headed.

• By David Foote
• 12/05/2016

It's difficult to find an employer not struggling to come up with a unique tech staffing model that balances three things: the urgencies of new digital innovation strategies, combating ever deepening security threats, and keeping integrated systems and networks running smoothly and efficiently. The staffing challenge has moved well beyond simply having to choose between contingent workers, full-time tech professionals, and a variety of cloud computing and managed services options (Infrastructure as a Service [IaaS], Platform as a Service [PaaS], Software as a Server [SaaS]). Over the next few years, managers will continue to be tasked with leading a massive transformation of the technology and tech-business hybrid workforce to focus on quickly and predictably delivering a wide variety of operational and revenue-generating infrastructure solutions involving Internet of Things (IoT) products and services, Big Data advanced analytics, cybersecurity, and new mobile and cloud computing capabilities. Consequently, tech professionals and developers must align their skills and interests accordingly to help their employers meet existing and forthcoming digital transformation imperatives that are forcing deep, accelerated changes in technology organizations.

As cloud infrastructure becomes more capable of economically delivering performance and data at capacities and speeds once never imagined, organizations of all sizes are seeking tech professionals and developers with the proper skills, knowledge, and competencies to create more agile and responsive environments.

At the same time, they're grappling to ensure reliability of existing infrastructure where any amount of downtime is less acceptable than ever. Along with that is an onslaught of cybersecurity attacks occurring more frequently that have many IT managers saying they can't find adequate labor to help them protect their existing networks and endpoints. The latest reminder was in the spotlight following the most powerful denial of service (DoS) attack to date in late October resulting from unprotected endpoints on surveillance cameras. IoT, machine-to-machine communications and telematics have introduced new complexities ranging from the need to better secure the devices and the delivery points to which they connect. Meanwhile, the growing IoT landscape is unleashing an exponential flood of new data from hundreds of millions of devices, and organizations need to blend their IT and operational systems and find people with Big Data analytics skills to handle the cloud-based machine learning infrastructure that's now emerging. This generational shift in IT will put a premium on, or create a baseline requirement for, IT professionals willing to follow the money and see where their skills will be most applicable. Whether you're a manager looking to ensure your staff can deliver on these changes or an IT professional deciding on a career direction, workforce requirements and customer expectations are changing.

If you're in the latter camp, it's important to understand that the supply-and-demand aspect that drives compensation is also a moving target. IT pay has a long history of volatility and in 2016 we have seen even sharper swings in those premiums. Based on hiring patterns, the following overriding trends will drive market demand for IT professionals who have the experience, drive and skills to deliver solutions:

• Cybersecurity: The need to protect traditional infrastructure from pervasive and ongoing attacks from a growing number of vectors and sophistication. Evidence suggests pay premiums for cybersecurity will continue to be strong for the coming years as the threat landscape continues to become more complex and confounding. The elimination of traditional boundaries brought about by cloud computing and mobility and a massive new influx of data generated by IoT devices will only exacerbate this need. More than 25 percent of identified attacks will involve IoT, according to Gartner Inc.
• Cloud: IT infrastructure over time is transitioning to an all-cloud model, whether provided by a services provider, in the datacenter or a hybrid mix of the two. The move to these elastic infrastructures and op-ex approach to IT is also enabling high-performance computing and storage capacity that's ushering in the ability to perform workloads and software-defined automation not possible with traditional client server or Web application tier infra­structures. Likewise, the move to cloud service-based apps such as Salesforce, Office 365 and Workday, to name just a few, is shifting the need for those with skills in building and managing traditional packaged software to those proficient in these new SaaS-based solutions. The amount spent on cloud this year was forecast at $111 billion, according to Gartner. By 2020, that spending is expected to climb to $216 billion.
• Big Data Analytics/Machine Learning: The move toward digital transformation is all about empowering users to make quick decisions based on an overwhelmingly massive groundswell of data to be curated from new sources such as IoT endpoints using the cloud infrastructure and enabling predictive analytics utilizing the machine learning conversational computing frameworks that Amazon Web Services Inc. (AWS), Google Inc., IBM Corp. and Microsoft are developing.
• DevOps: The drive to bring together IT operations and development is taking hold as the move to digital transformation, or at least the plan to do so, means organizations must be more agile. A more rapid release cadence in software delivery -- from Windows and Office to open source environments and vertical applications -- requires that IT shops can build, deliver and manage systems with these dynamics. Likewise, new programming environments and frameworks such as containers and micro-services are enabling new classes of cloud-native applications designed for new classes of devices and intelligent and modern infrastructure.
• Digital Business Transformation: This is the end goal of many organizations that fear, rightfully so, their business models are at risk unless they can become digital businesses. This is the culmination of the four areas just noted but also includes the ability to leverage advances in UX and UI design and the ability to lever­age IT to help companies build new products, services and support that's tuned to the digital era.