Top 7 Skills that are Highly Demanding in 2010

According to the Global Knowledge/TechRepublic 2010 Salary Survey, one of the questions asked was “What skill set will your company be looking to add in 2010?”. The list includes Cloud Computing, Web Development, Security and Network Administration etc. This article concentrates on the skill list with number 1 is the most demanding.

• Project Management: Most of the companies are very tight in their budget due to the effect of recession. Those days are gone when companies wasted money for any type of IT initiatives. Now, corporates are very careful in terms of implementing IT projects so that their ROI is worthwhile.
  The crucial step to do this is project planning and implementation. According to the article of Project Management Institute, project managers still focuses on planning, organizing and managing resources to accomplish the successful completion of specific project goals and objectives.
• Security: According to Symantec’s Security and Storage Trends to Watch report, the number of spam messages that contains
  malware increased nine times and  it represents more than 2% of the e-mails. Cybercriminals used Social Networking Sites to launch fresh attack. Symantec further predicts that hackers will continuously use social networking site to get customer’s sensitive data and they will also try to take Windows 7 as the new platform to exploit the vulnerabilities further.
  Despite of the economic recession in 2009, enterprises will continue hiring security expert. As per the survey last year of 1,500 U.S.-based
  security pros by security certification provider ISC2, there is going to be growing need in 2010 in the area of information risk management, operations security, certification and accreditation, security management practices, and security architecture and models.
• Network Administration: According to a survey of IT chiefs by Robert Half Technology, Network administration is the most demanding skills in the first quarter of 2010. Hopefully, companies are going to upgrade in Windows 2008 server and Windows 7 client in this year. So, they require good network administrator to smoothen the traffic flow.
  The Network Administrator will concentrate on the overall health of the network, server deployment, security, and makes sure that the network connectivity throughout a company’s LAN/WAN infrastructure is on par with technical standard of the organization.
• Cloud Technology:  Now, more and more organizations are looking for virtualization and cloud technology. But, it is quite difficult to find expert in cloud computing. That’s why companies are looking for skill set that includes storage, networks and desktop, according to Network World article. Gradually, cloud computing is going to be the expected technology for system administrators and it will become the standard skill set over the period of time.
• Business Analysis: Business analysis identifies the business need and find solutions to business problems. It may consist of system development, process improvement or strategic planning. Due to economic downturn and regulatory compliance, companies are compelled to think through business problems and their solution. So, the requirement of business analyst is back again. IT people are ideal candidate for this job because they have broader perspective about company’s business.
  There are three types of BAs: enterprise BAs who identify the business opportunities  and defines the work ; transition BAs who makes minor adjustment of the plans; and project BAs who work on project teams.
• Web Development: Developing Facebook games is one popular area of web development, currently. Web developer and blogger Glen Stansberry says that developing iPhone apps is also another lucrative area of web development. Stansberry listed other popular Web development skills that includes Framework knowledge, widget development, content management system customizations , and Javascript Plugin creation.
• Database Management: Programmers must be able to develop programs that can interface quickly and efficiently with DBMS. On the contrary, database administrators “must be able to bring the full power of database features to bear on business problems”, writes Oracle and IBM-certified DBA Howard Fosdick. He also adds “DBA expertise can be the Achilles’ heel of database projects - many IT projects have failed due to the inability to secure DBA talent or successfully address DBA issues,”
  The major vendors run some certification program for database professionals. For example, Oracle Certified Associate is the first step of the Oracle certification ladder. Next is the popular Oracle Certified Professional (OCP) credential, which certifies an individual’s ability to manage, develop,or implement enterprise-wide databases and other software. Oracle Certified Master (OCM) is Oracle’s most advanced certification.