The changing face of the IT industry.
In Ireland, many people seem to have a soft-focus picture of the working life of that peculiar species known as “IT people”: tapping happily away at their laptops, drinking fair trade lattes while enjoying the view from their window over Dublin’s Docklands, and shaking their heads sadly when they think of the unfortunates that don’t have cushy, secure jobs…
The reality for most programmers and hackers is somewhat different, however. Developments in the IT industry are happening at such a pace that it is impossible to say which companies will even exist in a few years. This forces every IT company to be hyper-alert to change and to follow and even pre-empt it, which often trickles down as enormous stress for workers. And it’s going to get worse.
Developments afoot in IT mean that workers will have to become veritable shape-shifters—regularly morphing into new creatures to meet the demands of their industry. Legions of new acronyms and trends arrive on the market every year, forcing programmers and hackers everywhere to try to keep up with every development—or face becoming utterly obsolete, just as their current area of specialisation will be in five years time.
Since the advent of the smartphone, consumers have become used to consuming apps for every conceivable need, right down to the Whoopee-cushion app (which, predictably, made its developers a fortune). Now managers are asking why the same cherry-picking, app-store concept is not a reality for business. Companies are looking for modularised, off-the-shelf solutions from their IT suppliers, and if these can supply a reliable range of business ‘apps’ that work, the end of the company IT department could soon be upon us.
In the age of cloud, the entire role of IT in companies is being redefined, and the IT department is no longer seen as an irreplaceable team of sorcerers whose work can neither be understood nor replicated. Now everyone’s got a computer in their pocket that can also, amazingly, make and receive calls. Some in the industry see traditional IT departments being replaced in the medium to long term by a new generation of cloud-based service providers, essentially outsourcing companies’ entire IT requirements.
This will force Joe ‘the IT-worker’ Bloggs to morph into a being that is still needed, for example in the development of those modular business solutions. Just think of all the people out there who hate SAP…and all the companies that pay a fortune for it (and then another for consultants to actually get it to work!). The market’s huge, but the risks are too…
Looks like it’s time for our hero, the IT worker, to take things to the next level…again!
If you need help making sense of the ever changing IT landscape then give the team at Green Cloud Computers a call. We have a huge amount of experience in solving IT problems, whether it is PC Maintenance, or Computer Repairs Meath, Ratoath, Ashbourne and surrounding counties. We are here to help, and a phone consultation is free.
