
Tech Skills
Programming Talent on the Decline
IT candidates with traditional skills, such as Cobol, Delphi/Object Pascal and Transact-SQL ColdFusion—even Flash. They’re older languages being phased out.
Programming Talent on the Rise
People who know MS.net, Python, Ruby, HTML5, RESTful Web Services, JavaScript and JQuery, as these skills are best suited for mobile Android, Apple and Windows Phone 7.
Data Center Talent on the Decline
Network admins who update and install patches, provision storage, and wire and couple blade servers.
Data Center Talent on the Rise
Systems analysts who oversee unified communications within the data center. Thanks to virtualization, you only need one or two of them, instead of an entire fleet.
Data Technology Talent on the Decline
The SQL database admin guys. They’ll make way for IT pros more suited to help their companies take command of big data.
Data Technology Talent on the Rise
Workers who combine abstract tech, math and engineering thinking with the ability to interact well with business. Intangibles like visualization and imagination also help.
Security Talent on the Decline
Applicants who offer only traditional backup and recovery capabilities. You’ll likely hand off these duties to third-party providers.
Security Talent on the Rise
Prospects with a more nuanced security-oversight approach to virtualization, data mining and managing tools and resources in the cloud.
Best Practices, Part I
Think outward-facing, business-centric and business-enabling as you evaluate IT candidates. It’s not about hiring stop-gap support anymore.
Best Practices, Part II
Recruit specifically for those who will make your department smarter when it comes to virtualization, cloud computing, Web 2.0, and BYOD and mobility.