Upcoming IT Trends

One of the newest trends that's hit the technology world is the increasing use of cloud-based resources. More and more applications, file hosting, and web development solutions are moving towards off-site/centralized storage that's hosted by larger companies such as Microsoft. Now, as we move closer to purely cloud-based systems, a large amount of new opportunities crop up for those interested in the IT field. There will always be a need for on-site support, so I don't see the need for IT in the workplace to completely disappear, but there will be a large push towards creating more jobs in centrally hosted data centers. Server and Network Engineers will have a larger job market as the need for these data centers increases. I also believe that as these areas become larger, virtualization will become more important as well; this places more stress on infrastructure design and certifications such as the VCP (VMWare Certified Professional) or MCSE (Microsoft Certified Systems Expert) in infrastructure as Hyper-V and vSphere become more important for these solutions.

Cloud storage has been the real first step into the cloud market since storage is something that every company and user needs in order to function. The primary concerns with storage are quantity, quality, and backups. Data must be secure, be able to be restored, and be able to be accessed at any point in time in order to ensure smooth operations for the company. Organizations such as Barracuda Networks and CDNetworks have given some options for cloud storage and backups with appliances that copy data and back it up to an off-site data center for safekeeping.

However, Microsoft has started offering a new product called Office 365 which allows web access to both files and Microsoft Office applications. This has been a large jump into making these types of solutions not only open to users at the corporate level but the home-user level as well. By making cloud-based solutions more accessible, the market is driven to compete which will only increase the amount of cloud solutions available to end users.

The last link in my sources below has a Cloud Computing white paper from Microsoft that gives their take on skills that will be required and which to keep current in this new technical environment.

Sources:
Microsoft Office Web Applications
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/web-apps/

VMWare Certified Professional
http://mylearn.vmware.com/mgrReg/plan.cfm?plan=12457&ui=www_cert

Barracuda Networks - Cloud Based Storage
https://www.barracuda.com/products/backupservice?&a=google-na_BackupService-General_CloudStorage&kw=%2Bcloud-based%20%2Bstorage&gclid=CKiX7vDAt7YCFQtyQgodcBEAtw

Microsoft - IT Skills for the Cloud
http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/C/F/1CF6FFA8-2B9B-4F66-96D3-F35D48AC082D/Microsoft_Cloud_Whitepaper.docx