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Tech Skills Heading the Way of the Dinosaur 2012 Edition

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Tech Skills Heading the Way of the Dinosaur 2012 Edition

Randy Muller (MCT, MCTS, MCSE, CEH) , Global Knowledge Instructor

Introduction
The IT industry is one which evolves rapidly some would say too rapidly. As a consequence of this rapid change, IT professionals must also update their skills more often than most other industries. Accountants must learn new tax laws; IT pros must learn new operating systems. Doctors learn new techniques or have new pharmaceuticals at their disposal; IT pros must learn new programming languages. Some IT skills have been around for decades just ask your friendly COBOL programmer. New IT skills emerge faster than old ones retire. IT pros must continuously learn new and expand current skills or they will become extinct, just as the systems and applications they once supported. Lets take a quick look at some skills that are on the endangered species list for 2012.

1.

E-mail

How one communicates in the office is changing as the commonly accepted business communications models have evolved. The phone was the communications method prior to the adoption of e-mail. E-mail has been heavily used for so many years that it has all but replaced the art of letter writing (what are historians going to use for research in the future?). It is too easy to use e-mail as a fire-and-forget technology. How often have we heard someone say but, I sent you an e-mail as if it was a forgone conclusion that: (a) that the recipient would indeed receive the e-mail and (b) that the intended recipient read it. E-mail is a slowly fading form of office communication in the corporate environment and even for home use. In fact, one company, Atos, has banned the use of internal e-mail. Instead of sending e-mails, this French company with over 70,000 will use text and instant messages (IMs), phones and perish the thought personal interaction. What does this mean for IT pros? You need to accept the fact that the use of e-mail as a form of corporate communication will diminish, perhaps quicker than it rose in use. Look at how quickly the use of hosted e-mail providers and the cloud have permeated the corporate IT environment. If you need any further proof, look at Microsofts Office 365, which is moving Exchange, SharePoint, Lync, and Office Applications to the web.

2.

Computer Hardware Support

There was a time when user support meant fixing a desktop or assisting with an operating system problem or application issue. The environment has changed; now computer and application support is not so straight forward. The rise of tablets and the cloud will make many hardware-based skills outdated. Virtualization will have a dramatic impact as corporations can consolidate several server roles onto a single server. Laptops are common in the office and hardware support for laptops is more limited.

Copyright 2012 Global Knowledge Training LLC. All rights reserved.

The increased popularity and use of tablets will also have a negative impact on hardware support personnel. For many office users (and consumers, for that matter), a laptop might be too heavy or cumbersome to use (or battery life might be a factor). There is little to no hardware support for these devices. Gone are the days when we repaired our own computer systems. At most, we replace components, and that is about it. Those IT pros relying on hardware-based skills might find themselves being replaced.

3.

COBOL

COBOL is one of the oldest programming languages, having been around for 50 years. In fact, a select group of IT pros may have had the opportunity to start and finish their careers having worked with just one language a rare feat indeed! Though the demise of COBOL has been proclaimed for 20 years, it still remains in use in some corporations. There was a resurgence of use and interest in COBOL just prior to Y2K, but it has been fading since then. Though not commonly found in academic programs, there are some universities where COBOL is still taught to the programmers who must support the business applications that were written COBOL for now. As new applications are written in other languages, the programs that were written in COBOL and the people who support these older apps will find themselves needing a new skill set. This also holds true for older programming languages such as ColdFusion and PowerBuilder. It is interesting that there is some belief that Microsofts Silverlight 5 will be its last. Given this, here is evidence of another language that will meets its demise soon enough.

4.

Adobe Flash Mobile

Adobe announced in November 2011 that they will not continue development of Flash Mobile and that Flash Player 11.1 would be the last version for mobile devices. For developers, this means that, much like the demise of Silverlight, it is time to migrate to HTML 5

5.

Windows 2000 and before

What is an older operating system, and how does this impact those who support them? If you are still running Windows 95 there might be some room for discussion. This also holds true for Windows 98, NT4, Windows 2000, and even Windows XP now. If the operating system in question is almost old enough to go to a PG13 movie without an adult, it might be time to upgrade. This holds true for those who support these older systems. You cannot continue to promote yourself as an NT4 guru (or for that matter, Novell seen a Master CNE lately?). There is a large learning curve from Windows 2000 to Windows Server 2008 R2. If you have not begun the process, you had better start soon.

6.

Traditional Telephony

The telephony world has gone through tremendous changes. For decades, we were used to having a phone on our desk, and sometimes more than one! The people who supported these PBX systems were in demand. Are PBX systems going the way of Betamax? They will be replaced as new technologies provide for more than just a phone on a desk.

Copyright 2012 Global Knowledge Training LLC. All rights reserved.

The underlying principles of telephony havent changed; rather, it is how the systems are implemented. Users are mobile, the traditional office environment has changed, and users are now accustomed to communicating while on the road, in an airport, on a train, or at home. Microsofts Lync Server 2010 is changing how we look at presence, voice, IM, and conferencing. The days of having a physical phone and the techs to support them are numbered. The PSTN (public switched telephone network or, as some refer to it, POTS - plain old telephone service) networks will gradually be replaced. There are an increasing number of people and even families, who do not have a landline they use their cell phones instead.

7.

Networking

The networking world is changing to meet the challenges of new technologies and requirements. This also means that once commonly used network skills are on their way out as well. One example is subnetting with IPv4. Can you look at an IP address with a /21 notation and determine the number of subnets and addresses for each one? (32 Subnets, 2048 addresses.) IPv6 will make this once-vaunted skill obsolete once IPv6 is adopted (much like the paperless office it is coming soon), knowing how to subnet will be a dead and gone skill. Even now, many network administrators dont know how to subnet. In addition to subnetting, let us not forget the old Novell network protocol - IPX/SPX. Novell is still around, and there are even some old IPX/SPX networks running, but they are being replaced. Besides, NWLink, which was Microsofts implementation of IPX/SPX, is only 32-bit.

8.

Silverlight

While not dead yet, it seems as if Silverlight 5 is possibly the last version released by Microsoft. Support will continue for some years, but there wont be a Silverlight 6. All of you developers out there need to start ramping up with HTML 5.

9.

Software and Network support

Remember when you called tech support and someone came around to help, or when you had a desktop computer that ran all of your software instead. The introduction of Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) will have an enormous impact on desktop support. Now updates to software can be centrally applied, support can be managed by fewer personnel, and older equipment will be retained longer but, again, with fewer personnel. Wireless is also having an impact on network support. There will be fewer cabling requirements for entire offices.

10. ColdFusion
Users of ColdFusion used to rave about how easy this Web programming language was to use and quickly you could start using it. That may have been true, but it is hard for it compete with so many newer, easier and more advanced products. ColdFusion was originally released in 1995 Today, it is superseded by Microsoft .NET, Java, PHP, and Ruby on Rails, to name but a few. Web developers basing their careers on this language should start looking at modernizing their skill set.

Copyright 2012 Global Knowledge Training LLC. All rights reserved.

Summary
The IT world is a field where new technologies emerge almost on a daily basis. New service packs, updates, new operating systems and applications and new hardware all mean we need to keep our skill sets current. In 2012 you are going to see a greater emphasis Todays trend toward services-based software, mobile apps, the cloud and consumer technologies means it is the breadth, not the depth of knowledge and experience that wins or keeps the IT jobs. (Computerworld, December 19, 2011.) We are no longer able to specialize in a single version of a product for the entirety of our career. In order to have a viable career in the IT field, you must be willing to continuously learn, either through formal Instructor Led Training (ILT) or self-study. There is a saying the academic world Publish or perish in this case it should be changed to expand your skill set or become extinct. Besides keeping your mind active helps keep you younger Good Luck!

About the Author

Randy Muller (MCT, MCTS, MCSE, CEH) is an instructor with Global Knowledge, specializes in teaching Microsoft Office 365, Exchange, Lync Server as well as Windows Server 2008.

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Copyright 2012 Global Knowledge Training LLC. All rights reserved.