Posted on 07/21/2009 5:31:52 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
One of the challenges of working in the IT field is staying on top of emerging technologies - while letting go of those that are becoming obsolete. This Global Knowledge article lists 10 areas that are fading into obscurity.
There are some things in life, like good manners, that never go out of style. And there are other things, like clothing styles, that fall in and out of fashion. But when an IT skill falls out of favor, it rarely ever comes back. Here’s our list of 10 dying IT skills. If any of these skills is your main expertise, perhaps it’s time to think about updating your skill set.
1: Asynchronous Transfer Mode
ATM was popular in the late 90s, particularly among carriers, as the answer to overworked frame relay for wide-area networking. It was considered more scalable than frame relay and offered inherent QoS support. It was also marketed as a LAN platform, but that was its weakness. According to Wikipedia, ATM failed to gain wide acceptance in the LAN where IP makes more sense for unifying voice and data on the network. Wikipedia notes that ATM will continue to be deployed by carriers that have committed to existing ATM deployments, but the technology is increasingly challenged by speed and traffic shaping requirements of converged voice and data networks. A growing number of carriers are now using Multi-Protocol Label Switching (MPLS), which integrates the label-switching capabilities of ATM with the packet orientation of IP. IT skills researcher Foote Partners listed ATM in its IT Skills and Certification Pay Index as a non-certified IT skill that has decreased in value in the last six month of 2008.
2: Novell NetWare
Novell’s network operating system was the de facto standard for LANs in the 1990s, running on more than 70% of enterprise networks. But Novell failed to compete with the marketing might of Microsoft. Novell tried to put up a good fight by acquiring WordPerfect to compete with Windows Office, but that move failed to ignite the market, and Novell eventually sold WordPerfect to Corel in 1996. Novell certifications, such as Certified Novell Engineer, Master Certified Novell Engineer, Certified Novell Certified Directory Engineer, and Novell Administrator, were once hot in the industry. But now, they are featured in Foote Partners’ list of skills that decreased in value in 2008. Hiring managers want Windows Server and Linux skills instead.
3: Visual J++
Skills pay for Microsoft’s version of Java declined 37.5% last year, according to the Foote Partners’ study. The life of J++, which is available with Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0, was not a smooth one. Although Sun Microsystems licensed Java to Microsoft to develop J++, Microsoft failed to implement some features of the official Java standard while implementing other extensions of its own. Sun sued Microsoft for licensing violations in a legal wrangle that lasted three years. Microsoft eventually replaced J++ with Microsoft .NET.
4: Wireless Application Protocol
Yes, people were able to browse the Internet in the late 90s before Apple’s iPhone. Web site operators would rewrite their content to the WAP’s Wireless Markup Language, enabling users to access Web services such as email, stock results and news headlines using their cell phones and PDAs. WAP was not well received at the beginning because WAP sites were slow and lacked the richness of the Web. WAP has also seen different levels of uptake worldwide because of the different wireless regulations and standards around the world. WAP has since evolved and is a feature of Multimedia Messaging Service, but there is now a new generation of competing mobile Web browsers, including Opera Mobile and the iPhone’s Safari browser.
5: ColdFusion
ColdFusion users rave that this Web programming language is easy to use and quick to jump into, but as many other independent software tools have experienced, it’s hard to compete with products backed by expensive marketing campaigns from Microsoft and others. The language was originally released in 1995 by Allaire, which was acquired by Macromedia (which itself was purchased by Adobe). Today, it is superseded by Microsoft .NET, Java, PHP, and the language of the moment: open source Ruby on Rails. A quick search of the Indeed.com job aggregator site returned 11,045 jobs seeking PHP skills, compared to 2,027 CF jobs. Even Ruby on Rails, which is a much newer technology - and which received a major boost when Apple packaged it with OS X v10.5 in 2007 — returned 1,550 jobs openings on Indeed.com.
6: RAD/extreme programming
Back in the late 90s and early 2000s, the rapid application development and extreme programming development philosophies resulted in quicker and more flexible programming that embraced the ever-changing needs of customers during the development process. In XP, developers adapted to changing requirements at any point during the project life rather than attempting to define all requirements at the beginning. In RAD, developers embraced interactive use of structured techniques and prototyping to define users’ requirements. The result was accelerated software development. Although the skills were consistently the highest paying in Foote Partners survey since 1999, they began to lose ground in 2003 due to the proliferation of offshore outsourcing of applications development.
7: Siebel
Siebel is one skill that makes a recurring appearance in the Foote Partners’ list of skills that have lost their luster. Siebel was synonymous with customer relationship management in the late 90s and early 2000s, and the company dominated the market with a 45% share in 2002. Founded by Thomas Siebel, a former Oracle executive with no love lost for his past employer, Siebel competed aggressively with Oracle until 2006 when it was ultimately acquired by the database giant. Siebel’s complex and expensive CRM software required experts to install and manage. That model lost out to the new breed of software-as-a-service (SaaS) packages from companies such as Salesforce.com, which deliver comparable software over the Web. According to the ITJobsWatch.com, Siebel experts command an average salary of GBP52,684 ($78,564), but that’s a slide from GBP55,122 a year ago. Siebel is ranked 319 in the job research site’s list of jobs in demand, compared to 310 in 2008.
8: SNA
The introduction of IP and other Internet networking technologies into enterprises in the 1990s signaled the demise of IBM’s proprietary Systems Network Architecture. According to Wikipedia, the protocol is still used extensively in banks and other financial transaction networks and so SNA skills continue to appear in job ads. But permanent positions seeking SNA skills are few and far between. ITJobsWatch.com noted that there were three opening for permanent jobs between February and April, compared to 43 during the same period last year. Meanwhile, companies such as HP offer consultants with experience in SNA and other legacy skills, such as OpenVMS and Tru64 UNIX for short-term assignments.
9: HTML
We’re not suggesting the Internet is dead, but with the proliferation of easy-to-use WYSIWYG HTML editors enabling non-techies to set up blogs and Web pages, Web site development is no longer a black art. Sure, there’s still a need for professional Web developers, but a good grasp of HTML isn’t the only skill required of a Web developer. Professional developers often have expertise in Java, AJAX, C++, and .NET, among other programming languages. HTML as a skill lost more than 40% of its value between 2001 and 2003, according to Foote Partners.
10: COBOL
Is it dead or alive? This 40-year-old programming language often appears in lists of dying IT skills. But it also appears in as many articles about organizations with legacy applications written in COBOL that are having a hard time finding workers with COBOL skills. IBM cites statistics that 70% of the world’s business data is still being processed by COBOL applications. But how many of these applications will remain in COBOL for the long term? Even IBM is pushing its customers to “build bridges” and use service-oriented architecture to “transform legacy applications and make them part of a fast and flexible IT architecture.” About the author
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Linda Leung is a senior IT journalist with 20 years’ experience editing and writing news and features for online and print. She has extensive experience creating and launching news Web sites, including most recently, independent communities for customers of Cisco Systems and Microsoft.
Quality Assurance is all about methodology that is not language specific and is integral to all structured software developement life cycles.
Sounds like the kinda guy you wouldn’t want to be in the same boat with.
This is why I chose electrical engineering over computer science - 30 years ago. Maxwell’s equations never get outdated.
Exactly!
You’d be surprised. COBOL is still heavily used on Mainframes at Banks for massive number crunching. There’s really nothing better at doing it!
BUT...most of those programs have been in place for decades, and continuous development isn’t common, so demand for coders stays really low.
LOL, never heard of that one. My uncle and brother are IT guys and will pass that along.
Henceforth I dub thee COBOL KILLA’!!
Sorry, but every QA person I ever dealt with thought they were programmers but didn’t have the training. They never failed to blame the programming staff when they signed off for the programs to go into productiion though.
Me three.
Anyone with outdated skills can always go to work for the government. Government is so far behind the times, that they are still using obsolete equipment and programs and buying parts for old computers on ebay.
In a Computerworld 2009 annual Forecast survey, IT pros were asked to name the hottest IT skills in 2009. I’ve noted the key points of each skill, and provided additional reading on each topic, in a format that’s easy to peruse for your viewing pleasure. (A nod to everyone out there who, like me, passed college thanks to CliffsNotes.)
1. Programming/application development
SAP, .NET, and C# are cited as the hottest skills in this segment right now. The study estimates that SAP experts make $35 to $40 per hour more than average senior technicians.
2. Help desk/technical support
This one shouldn’t come as a surprise—with increased outsourcing and more people expressing frustration over conversing with support staff that aren’t from America, having a sharp personality and the ability to explain complex problems simply is in high demand.
3. Project management
Many professionals, despite their experience and savvy, do not have good organization and project management skills. If you are able to acquire these skills and take on a leadership role in projects, you’ll be indispensible to your organization.
4. Networking
With the increase in unified communications, there’s a high demand for individuals who are knowledgeable in the latest networking technologies.
5. Business intelligence
When it comes to BI, individuals who can understand the systems and collect the right data are obviously valuable. Though, IT pros who can think in terms of business strategy, driving creative ideas for what data to pull and how to use it, are of extreme value.
6. Security
Security threats are abundant and always growing. Organizations not only need someone with a background in security, but also someone who can be proactive and forsee potential threats and eliminate them.
7. Web 2.0
Social networking becomes a bigger part of modern-day business every day, and it’s not just limited to Millennials. If you feel like you came to the party too late and won’t be able to keep up with the new tools, you’re wrong. Most of them are surprisingly intuitive.
8. Data center
Understanding the data center and virtualization is critical, as organizations move to cut energy and storage costs. While many general IT pros are expected to learn these skills, becoming an expert in virtualization will be a smart move.
9. Telecommunications
VoIP, Wi-Fi, WiMAX, Bluetooth—become familiar with these technologies, the devices that are using them, and what growing role they will have in the future.
Phew. I was sweating bullets the whole time I read this article but it was such a relief to reach the end of it and realize that none of those skills apply to me.
Pays $12 an hour, mostly due to outsourcing, where you talk to a guy name "Sean" with an Indian accent.
Also see here :
http://www.sap-img.com/the-top-it-skills-to-have.htm
The top ten IT skills to have for the next few years
This is not a scientific survey, but merely the opinions of a few agents that we asked. If you have a highly valued skill that isn’t on here, don’t worry, this is not definitive, but merely the opinions of a few agents. I’m sure if we’d polled others the list might have been slightly different.
Skills on the Up
We polled a number of agents and other sources of information and came up with the following skills that are likely to be on the up over the next few years. Anyone with these skills is likely to be employed, at good rates, even taking into account offshore outsourcing and Fast Track Visa Workers.
1. J2EE
2. .Net
3. C#
4. Project Management
5. Oracle
6. SAP
7. Business Analysis
8. VB.net
9. NT Novell
10. Java
NOTE: It won’t harm you to put your career in mastering Microsoft tools. Three of the top 10 skills are Microsoft technology related ( .NET, C# and VB.net ).
Ouch.
It wasn't that bad, just make sure you didn't have a typo. I found it easier to get along with than UNIX shell scripting.
Was doing contract work for IBM in sept 2001; system shipped to India; we were all laid off. I have never been able to find a job as a programmer since then. I even went back to school and passed an Oracle 8i dba certification course to no avail. I work as a computer field tech for a nationwide tax firm, making 75% less money, but would love a chance to get back into it.
Yes, but you have to be a certain color in most cases.
I started out as an Assembler programmer. I’m a fossil.
Usually, yes, but I know a couple of old white guys who are still working for the government doing things the old-school way because the government can’t get its new, expensive stuff to work properly.
I’m sure somebody made a bundle from selling our government the new, “improved” programs that don’t work.
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