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AS OF 8/20/2008 9:33AM EST

The Evolving Role of the IT Pro
By Systems Management News Team

August 1, 2008 — The United States may be in the midst of an economic tumble (dare we say recession?), but so far the IT job market is holding steady, with unemployment in IT at historic lows and employees earning hefty paychecks. The U.S. economy lost 62,000 jobs in June for the sixth straight month of employment losses, but the technology industry came out virtually unscathed, according to Labor Department statistics. And the American Electronics Association (AeA) Cybercities 2008 report showed that the U.S. tech sector continues to grow and create more jobs. Good news all around for IT, it seems.

But this rosy outlook in IT doesn’t give IT professionals carte blanche to sit on their laurels. AeA also cautioned that the U.S. is not producing enough workers with the right skills. And with more and more companies moving toward SaaS (software as a service), it’s safe to say that the role of the IT professional is changing. While this shouldn't signal a widespread loss of jobs, it definitely signals an evolution of the IT role.

While many traditional IT skills, especially those related to security and compliance, will continue to be in high demand, cloud computing technologies open the door for companies to outsource mundane work or complex maintenance responsibilities. While some might complain that cloud computing is eliminating IT workers, it is more likely that the role of the IT worker will change. IT workers will be asked to acquire new skills that will allow them to focus more on work that provides innovation and value to the business, which should be a welcome change, given that many IT staffers complain about the drudgery of repetitive and long workweeks.

This is already seen in the move toward cloud computing and managed services, where companies are outsourcing parts of their IT department to vendors like Google, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Microsoft. These providers can offer 24x7 service and cost containment. For example, instead of hiring Exchange administrators to manage internal Microsoft Exchange servers, many companies can now outsource Exchange infrastructure to Microsoft in a hosted environment.

We are only at the beginning stages of managed services. In response to growing customer demand, expect to see more and more vendors offering new solutions in this space. Cisco Systems is touting its IP communications and WebEx capabilities, and Microsoft is aggressively promoting “software plus services” solutions. These companies—and many others—have spent a lot of money researching, creating and marketing these solutions, so you can be sure they’ll make them succeed.

If you’re an IT pro, this doesn’t mean you should hit the panic button and go back to school for nursing or rocket science; rather, look at this as an opportunity to put your daily firefighting duties aside and focus on addressing the strategic needs of your business. Learn the new skills that will enable you to help your company deploy new and emerging technologies. These skills include system architecture, virtualization, application delivery, IT business analysis, Web 2.0 and project management skills.

Mastering these skills will not only help you keep your job, but may even score you a new and improved job, positioning you to work on the next generation of IT applications in the era of cloud computing.

Related Search Term(s): cloud computing, outsourcing

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