Analytics and data are the most sought-after IT job skills
Data and analytics are some of the most important new skills you, as an employee, can have today. This is according to Alteryx, whose new report dives into the most important skills and competencies in the workforce today. That being said, data and analytics have surpassed some interesting skills, like multilingualism.
Knowing a second language isn’t really that important any more, even though a 2014 report suggested otherwise. The Alteryx report, entitled The Business Grammar Report, also says data is no longer "confined to the IT department or technical specialists". Just 15 percent of UK businesses are still doing it the old fashioned way while almost a third (31 percent) are empowering their employees with self-service analytics tools.
Dealing with tech stress in the workforce
Tech-stress may be a relatively new phenomenon in the corporate world, however it is also the latest in a long line of issues which have a significant impact on the performance of today’s employees. Largely a symptom of the "always on" culture that stems from the nation’s growing reliance on digital devices, tech-stress is reported to be placing additional pressure on the corporate world as many workers struggle to switch off and relax.
According to the 2016 Quality of Working Life study carried out by the Chartered Management Institute, employees are now working 29 days extra a year and are suffering rising levels of stress. Citing an apparent "tech-addiction", the study found that this obsession with checking emails outside of work hours is making workers more stressed and less productive.
What businesses need to know about a mobile strategy
Mobile was once the concern of IT managers. But now that the responsibility for business mobility has spread to every part of the enterprise, with a mobile first strategy becoming increasingly prevalent, it’s essential that the CEO sits up and pays attention.
Mobile is now an intrinsic part of everyday life and has spilled into the workplace via Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and Chose Your Own Device (CYOD). As a consequence the CEO needs to have mobile as a key consideration, because as the old adage goes "not having a plan is planning to fail".
The digitization of manufacturing
When I was younger, I used to think of the classical manufacturing companies as dinosaurs, part of the old economy. For me, they were large and slow lumbering beasts, many of them soon to be extinct, and rendered obsolete by emerging high-tech companies like Nokia, Intel, Microsoft. I was not alone in this feeling.
Manufacturing companies built cars, compressors, drilling equipment and all sorts of other products that I rarely encountered in daily life. In my mind, I contrasted these traditional manufacturers with the new economy in which I was working. High-tech and software was cool, innovative and forward looking. Manufacturing was boring, dirty and obsolete.
UK tech salaries continue to grow
Salaries for tech jobs in the UK are still rising in the second quarter of the year, despite the fact that the number of jobs in the industry is slowly declining. This is according to a new report by Dice, the online career site for the technology community.
Together with Watch, it lists the most wanted jobs and skills in the industry. The two companies say cloud and security skills are still most wanted, both in permanent and contract roles.
Failing to attract security experts may prove costly for businesses
A new report from Kaspersky Lab has found that large businesses that struggle to attract sufficiently skilled security experts end up paying up to three times more to recover from a cyber security incident.
The much talked-about skills gap in the security industry continues to cause problems for businesses, as increasing wages, a general shortage of expert availability and the need for more specialists are all prevalent.
Apple gets green light to build Irish data center
After months of back and forth, Apple has finally gotten the approval to build its first data centre in Ireland. The approval was given by the Irish planning body -- An Bord Pleanala -- last week, despite being opposed by a couple of individuals and local businesses.
The planning body said the 197-hectares data center, to be built in a forest on the west coast of Ireland, will significantly boost local economy. The opposition says the building will have a negative effect on the local wildlife, and could have a negative effect in terms of flooding.
Brexit has little impact on UK's IT jobs market
The Brexit vote is yet to make a more significant impact in the UK’s tech job market, according to a new Dice report. The career site for the tech community surveyed 1,200 UK tech professionals and recruiters, and found that people are generally not making any dramatic movements because of Brexit.
It says that just above a fifth (22 percent) changed their career plans since Brexit. While more than half think a positive vote on the referendum would have a negative impact on the UK’s tech job market, 44 percent say they’re now looking for a new job in the EU.
Outsourced IT probably hurt Delta Airlines when its power went out
Delta Airlines last night suffered a major power outage at its data center in Atlanta that led to a systemwide shutdown of its computer network, stranding airliners and canceling flights all over the world. You already know that. What you may not know, however, is the likely role in the crisis of IT outsourcing and offshoring.
Whatever the cause of the Delta Airlines power outage, data center recovery pretty much follows the same routine I used 30 years ago when I had a PDP-8 minicomputer living in my basement and heating my house. First you crawl around and find the power shut-off and turn off the power. I know there is no power but the point is that when power returns we don’t want a surge damaging equipment. Then you crawl around some more and turn off power to every individual device. Wait in the dark for power to be restored, either by the utility or a generator. Once power has been restored turn the main power switch back on then crawl back to every device, turning them back on in a specific order that follows your emergency plan. You do have an emergency plan, right? In the case of the PDP-8, toggle in the code to launch the boot PROM loader (yes, I have done this is complete darkness). Reboot all equipment and check for errors. Once everything is working well together then reconnect data to the outside world.
Business apps can greatly benefit from flash storage
Here’s an interesting thought -- if you don’t use flash storage, you risk reputation damage. Interesting conclusion, right? Well, this is basically what data management company NetApp is saying in its latest report.
NetApp claims that almost a quarter (23 percent) of businesses risk damaging their reputation because they do not support business-critical applications with flash storage.
Western Digital launches 10TB 'WD Gold' datacenter hard drive
Even though solid state drives are all the rage nowadays from a performance standpoint, mechanical hard drives still reign supreme for capacity. While SSDs should eventually catch up to HDDs in this regard, that is not going to happen any time soon. Even when SSDs do reach capacity parity, their prices will not. In other words, I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for an affordable 10TB solid state drive.
Speaking of 10TB hard disk drives, today, Western Digital announces a datacenter HDD with that capacity. This is the company's highest-capacity 'WD Gold' drive ever.
US and UK facing IT 'talent crisis'
Both the UK and the US are in serious need of cyber-security talent, as there are hundreds of thousands of job vacancies in this industry that won’t be filled any time soon.
This is according to a new report by Intel Security and CSIS, which polled businesses all over the world. There is a "talent crisis" in Australia, France, Germany, Israel, Japan, Mexico, US and UK.
Communication issues growing concern for enterprises
Here’s an interesting finding: the number of downtime incidents, which prevent staff to work from their usual offices or access business-critical systems, has seen only a tiny drop -- five percent, compared to 2014. But the nature of these incidents has changed -- dramatically.
According to Sungard AS’s new report, communication-related failures have "jumped by a third" and now account for 25 percent of all total invocations. Consequently, communication issues have, for the first time ever, been named as the top reason UK business invoke recovery services.
Security pros find it hard to measure ROI on spending
The majority of IT security experts actually struggle to measure the return on investment in security measures, Tenable Network Security says.
Based on a survey of 250 IT security professionals, conducted during the Infosecurity Europe 2016 summit, it says that the majority can only measure the return on less than 25 percent of their security spend.
How IT teams of the future will look
IT teams will look completely different in the next five years, according to professional IT resourcing company Experis.
The company has released a new report, titled Tomorrow’s Tech Teams, in which it polled 1,000 IT workers and 200 senior IT managers. Six in ten (59 percent) believe the traditional IT department doesn’t exist in modern business.
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