Some people have said that IT careers and IT jobs will disappear due to the advent and mainstreaming of Cloud applications, as well as IT commoditization and outsourcing that will close data centers en masse. Indeed, one author in 2012 directly predicted a coming re-imagination or demise, of 4 (“four”) specific IT roles and career paths, namely: (i) Programming; (ii) Datacenter; (iii) Data Technology; and (iv) Security.[1] My detailed thinking on these predictions is more specifically laid-out below, in the “Analysis” section.
Will IT Jobs Disappear?
Such projections are in error, at best! Consider this statement regarding current IT role disruptions:
“The more interesting lesson is the tectonic shift in computing away from the device and software residing on the device, to data and applications access on a variety of form factors and connected operating systems”.[2]
In-house, traditional data centers are there to ensure that data and applications can be accessed from devices near and far; cloud computing data centers are there to ensure that data and applications can be accessed from devices near and far; IT staff are needed in both cases to troubleshoot, ensure that those devices and/or the servers are configured to “play nicely” with each other, and otherwise act when the system cannot itself, or its subsystems will not themselves, fail-over, add or reduce capacity, self-diagnose, grant access to technicians and tours to top brass, run out with backup tapes or portable hard drives when all else “really” fails, things fall apart, and the (data) center cannot hold,[3] and so on. Even when printing money and coins (stamps are less used in the West nowadays, due to the rapidity of mobility, and courier efficiencies), human eyes are still needed for that final quality control function Indeed, the case is also and stringently made that there is in fact an accelerating skills shortage in IT.[4]
What then, has changed to make the human factor suddenly obsolete?
I would say nothing, because the more things change, outwardly, the more they stay the same, behind the scenes, as IT jobs and IT professionals will always be needed; albeit with skills–sets that are both more diverse and more specialized at one and the same time, due to an increasing complexity of things.
“We estimate that by 2016 approximately 106,000 ICT jobs will need to be filled in Canada with demand for critical jobs far exceeding the supply. This figure will be further compounded if we account for the new emerging ICT sectors. Canada is also competing in an increasingly tight labour market, emerging global economies such as Brazil, Russia, India, China and South-Africa (BRICS) are achieving unprecedented economic growth using new energy, telecommunications and information technologies”.[5]
Let us look, then, at 7 (“seven”) specific area examples to help demonstrate how and why this must be.
7 Examples as Proof of IT’s Adaptability, Persistence, and Traction (APT).
1. Cloud applications.
Late last year, there came the headline story – “Almost 1.7 Million Cloud-Related Jobs Went Unfilled in 2012: Estimate“.[6] That’s a lot of jobs! However, what is the Cloud and what might those jobs be, some doubtless asked? In the 6 (“six”) months since the article was published, many of those who asked may now know a little more about the Cloud. For others, however, an overview may help give perspective.
What is Cloud Computing (“Cloud”)?
According to data from the United States’ National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST):
“Cloud computing is a model for enabling convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction. This cloud model promotes availability and is composed of five essential characteristics (On-demand self-service, Broad network access, Resource pooling, Rapid elasticity, Measured Service); three service models (Cloud Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud Platform as a Service (PaaS), Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS)); and, four deployment models (Private cloud, Community cloud, Public cloud, Hybrid cloud). Key enabling technologies include: (1) fast wide-area networks, (2) powerful, inexpensive server computers, and (3) high-performance virtualization for commodity hardware”. [7]
Unfortunately, this NIST data is already behind the market as the Cloud is advancing so fast. There are now no less than 7 (“seven”) well-identified Cloud service models, being: Software as a Service (SaaS),[8] Security as a Service (SecaaS),[9] Platform as a Service (PaaS),[10] Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS),[11] Networking as a Service (NaaS),[12] Data as a Service (DaaS),[13] and Migration as a Service (MaaS).[14]
Which are the Cloud Jobs?
An October, 2012 article identified the following 10 (“ten”) IT jobs as in-demand Cloud careers;[15] being:
(I) Cloud Architect; (II) Cloud Software Engineer; (III) Cloud Sales; (IV) Cloud Engineer; (V) Cloud Services Developer; (VI) Cloud Systems Administrator; (VII) Cloud Consultant; (IIX) Cloud Systems Engineer; (IX) Cloud Network Engineer; and (X) Cloud Product Manager.
The takeaway, is that “professionals who are experts in cloud computing, software as a service and virtualization are in high demand, but those with combined skills in server, software and networking are the most sought after in the current IT job market”.[16] Add to this, another recent survey that concludes: “[c]loud related skills represent virtually all the growth opportunities in IT employment worldwide as demand for cloud-related positions grows.”[17] Together, these findings put to rest any assertion that datacenter jobs will disappear, because servers are housed in data centers and data farms, and the need for them as well as the IT staff to tend to and manage them, is increasing with time and Cloud uptake.
Where is Cloud Heading – Long term?
In response to the PWC/Digital IQ Report that presented this year’s top 10 technology trends for business, I pondered this year’s top 5 technology trends for consumers;[18] one of which was EULA3. This term co-represents: (i) End-User Legal Authority (free rein to develop and customize screen savers, fonts, skins, and avatars to their liking, after download from developers with the IP rights therein); (ii) End-User License Autonomy (lawful unlocking of devices and to remove geographic restrictions, freedom from multi-year service contracts, number portability, rights to opt-out of geo-tracking, receiving ongoing service or functionality updates, and in the EU, a right to be free from pre-sale, bundled OEM-ware; and (iii) End-User Leveraged Ability (massively enhanced remote and mobile collaboration and empowerment tools and technologies, in “online groups, archives, fora, encyclopedias, and societies”).[19]
My focus here, is on the leveraged ability, that allows for more creativity, collaboration, commentary, commerce, connections, and cloud applications.[20] Within and as a result of this leveraged ability, I see the coming offering of Economies as a Service/Elasticity as a Service (EaaS). This will go beyond the mere discrete, standalone offerings of storage, ERP, and data analytics, to offer specific enterprise-level function and service suites that are customizable to users of various sizes, and that help customers to cut-down on their overhead in a still very tight global economic climate.
I can think of 10 (“ten”) such scalable suites right now, being: (1) Administration; (2) Compliance; (3) Efficiencies (requirements analyses, efficiency audits, business process reengineering, and big data analytics with recommendations and action on same, all from one vendor– essentially, management consultant services on demand, with M2M delivery in eFormat); (4) Facilities management (electronic and sensory, in M2M/SCADA); (5) General Counsel (as outsourced to on-call, geographically distributed providers through a Cloud contact point); (6) Human Resources; (7) Operations and Development; (8) Research and Development; (9) Sales (as tasked to geographically distributed operatives, on-call in the requisite locations- little travel needed; and (10) Treasury (audit, bookkeeping, and capital markets).[21]
Which Cloud sub-sectors will likely lead?
In a 2012 report for the EU, IDC predicted that the market for public cloud services in Europe would grow at a compound, annualized, 35% (“thirty-five percent”) from 2011 to 2014, despite structural challenges (security, infrastructure, standardization), and the continued tight economic climate.[22] IDC further posits that “[…] the diffusion of cloud computing is expected to generate substantial direct and indirect impacts on economic and employment growth in the EU, thanks to the migration to a new IT paradigm enabling greater innovation and productivity”.[23] Admitting that jobs will both be lost and created, “the cloud market is expected to be a driver of net creation of employment in the medium term”, regarding the European economy through 2020; with their estimate of the number of European cloud industry jobs then existing, ranging from 1.3 million to 3.8 million.[24]
Globally, IDC’s results from an Infosys-sponsored July, 2012 survey of 326 large companies across the US, Germany, France, and the U.K. found that, 2 out of 3 were adopting the cloud, with private cloud more popular than public or hybrid cloud.[25] While cloud strategy in Europe is more developed, it is standalone and needs to be integrated into a larger “whole of IT” approach; U.S. cloud adoption lags behind, but this is due to its being part of a “whole of IT” planning process with many stakeholders.[26] According to IDC, many survey respondents across the board were reportedly dabbling in “public cloud for some specific areas, but when it comes to the core IT environments, they are starting out with private cloud. Connecting the two into a hybrid model is gaining momentum”.[27]
Why use the Cloud?
In essence, “cloud computing simply capitalizes on the need of a business to manage costs, stick to its core competencies and outsource the rest”.[28] Services and servers formerly managed in house with capital expenditures, can now be managed by vendors as operational cost items, and expensed. “Companies want to escape IT equipment and support costs, but there are also certain applications and data that large enterprises especially are unlikely to ever let out of their sight and perimeters, King said. That is why the hybrid model works pretty well for many companies right now”.[29]
2. Mobility.
“Digitization—the mass adoption of connected digital services by consumers, enterprises, and governments— is far more than a disruptive wave washing over isolated industries. We have long since recognized that reality. Digitization is a fundamental driver of economic growth and job creation the world over- in both developed and emerging markets”.[30]
Within the home and other fixed locations, this digitization has permitted the visual TV broadcast format to shift in many locales to High Definition, allowing for clearer pictures, denser colours and images, and added content and utilities. In addition, ubiquitous computing is now the default mode, with digitization and packetization, and smartphones and tablets fast-nearing the raw computing power of earlier laptops; if not surpassing them in both that, and storage capacity, through the availability of add-on storage and memory card capacity. Customer-facing cloud applications (online photo storage, social media profile pages, and available-anywhere office productivity and document processing or management service offerings), all benefit from the spread of digitization and the ongoing drop in memory and hardware costs. Taken together, these developments have enabled location independence, geo-tagging, behavioural marketing, and social business on a hitherto unprecedented scale.
“IT” with regard to mobility ranges from applications, through form factors, to networking, diagnostics, and data analytics. Similarly, “convergence” in general, means that the field of mobile computing is already broad and deep,[31] and continues to grow with the expanding market for existing form factors (laptop, tablet, smartphone), and ever more innovative offerings to come. Even though some employers eschew creating and implementing BYOD policies for their increasingly mobile workforces (a dangerous oversight, in my opinion), while others re-think or seek to restrict aspects of the whole “mobility” dimension of work,[32] I really cannot envisage ITs mobility-enabling skills-sets facing any realistic danger of impending obsolescence.
3. Operational and ongoing improvements.
In the words of the American Society for Quality (ASQ): “[c]ontinuous improvement is an ongoing effort to improve products, services or processes. These efforts can seek “incremental” improvement over time or “breakthrough” improvement all at once”.[33] Of course, improving the individual (skills and abilities), can also lead to improving the product, service, or process – including of business processes and in separate business cost centres. Aside from the plethora of quality measures and quality improvement models, perhaps the simplest offering suggested by ASQ, is the P-D-C-A cycle, which stands for:
(i) Plan (identify opportunities and strategize for their exploitation);
(ii) Do (roll-out a pilot or beta of the change as planned);
(iii) Check (analyze the results and determine whether the desired result was achieved);
(iv) Act (Proceed on a larger scale if successful, or revise if not, with ongoing assessment in both cases).[34]
In the current and evolving IT environment, the need for operational and ongoing improvements is driven by a desire for post-merger, acquisition, or restructuring economies of scale; improved efficiencies in a very tight global economy and hyper-competitive climate; and to increase security in the face of heightened governance, risk, and regulatory compliance (GRC) requirements, and Cybersecurity exposures and events. Automated systems (after human programming), can gather and crunch a vast quantity of data in terms of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Privacy Impact Analysis (PIA), Security and Risk Analysis (SRA), and Threat Risk Assessment (TRA). However, in the three common, broad stages of all these activities (identification, assessment, mitigation), human input is indispensable to catch the nuances, round-out the corners, and otherwise right-size and customize both process and result. IT professionals will always be needed to plan, to do, to check and double-check, and to act.
4. Networking.
Networking has come very far since it was merely a question of connecting desktops to servers, and making sure that different servers or server versions and their operating systems (usually all in the same place or distributed corporate space or ecosystem), all meshed well together. Now, we network across availability zones in region, time zones, and definitely different ecosystems. With the speed at which technology is currently advancing and generations of IT are maturing,[35] there will always be “legacy” systems in the mix, and this will require the presence of professionals who know and are familiar enough with the idiosyncracies of these legacy systems to service and maintain them. As with the Basic, Fortran, and Pascal programming languages (which are still used, in some places), someone somewhere, will always be needed into the foreseeable future. This peculiarity will come into the clearest focus when data must be migrated from these legacy systems, and it can only be done the hard way. Networking also gains importance with the mainstreaming of Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), the Internet of Things (IoT) or Machine to Machine (M2M) communication[36] – as enabled and enhanced by MEMs[37], Software-Defined Networking (SDN), and of course, Cloud Computing. These, in their turn, further fuel the “apolitical” socialization of business, living, and leisure.
5. Virtualization.
“The term virtualization is commonly used to refer to the creation of multiple virtual servers that operate on one physical computer. Virtualization uses fewer physical resources to do an increased amount of work in a virtual environment, cuts the costs of purchasing expensive hardware for computers, uses less physical storage space and reduces costs to power and cool physical computers”.[38]
As stated, virtualization has many benefits; including heightened productivity and cost savings. However, the need for real human beings will persist. Additional solutions enabled by virtualization include advanced gamification (both single user and multi-user), eLearning, and social business with real time product and service demonstrations, serious streaming and graphics, and simultaneous screen-in-screen separate software instances for multitaneous collaboration, creativity, and other connections. Content is key, so there will always be a need for IT professionals across the 15 (“fifteen”) phases of the following, proposed new “horseshoe waterfall” software development process (up from the classic 6):
1. Requirements Analysis phase (PIA, ERP, SRA, TRA, and Objective-oriented Risk Identification);
2. Programming & Development phase (design, documentation, IP, cross-disciplinary “play-in/pet-in”[39]);
3. Vendor Development Testing phase (Quality, Usability, Interfaces, Performance, Stability – “QUIPS1”);
4. Application Security Testing (by subsystem, including to regulatory standard/industry metrics);
5. Contract Modeler/Tweaker phase (add-ons, P3 standalone software, and software for hardware);
6. P3 Development Testing phase (Quality, Usability, Interfaces, Performance, Stability – “QUIPS2”);
7. Vendor Integration phase (collective work of all subsystems & add-ons; documentation & IP updates);
8. Application Security testing (complete system by Vendor, and by user panel on late-stage beta);
9. White Hat phase (QUIPS3; with penetration testing, and to regulatory standard/industry metrics);
10. Feedback Integration phase (rectifications, new requirements, ruggedizing for special orders);
11. Deployment phase (with customer training, static testing, and onsite and remote debugging);
12. Implementation Validation phase (QUIPS4 ; with training, operational testing, and debugging);
13. Maintenance and Support phase (updates, patches, customer service, technical support);
14. Customer and Industry Feedback Analysis phase (knowledgebase, data analytics, planning);
15. Re-start at phase 1, 2, or 5: (next generation solution, fully new iteration, or market re-focus).
The falls are shaped like a horseshoe because the water can fall from several places or points at once, because the phases can easily overlap, and because the constant cycle of water never stops; so nobody can peer into the resulting product whirlpool and determine from where, or when, something fell-in.
6. Innovations.
The predictable thing about change, is that it will be constant. Whether or not you define it as progress, technology innovations will generally have knock-on effects that include additional innovations. This is a given, as items and areas rendered obsolete will be replaced, and those that wish to resist obsolescence, will make speedy and aggressive moves to adapt to that “new normal”. From mainframes, through PCs, laptops, smartphones, tablets, and wearable IT[40] and other solutions, innovation feeds upon itself, and knowledgeable IT personnel will always be needed to make things work, adapt, and counter-adapt with concatenating advances in miniaturization[41] and processing power spurring “chipification”[42] of ever more discrete utilities and ecosystems to enable higher functions, remote diagnostics, and interoperation. Current and developing form factors including wearables (heartrate monitors), scannables (QR codes and RFID), flyables (drones), drivables (smart cars and next generation autopilot), and as enabled by current (Gesticuloperation – i.e. operation by voice, clap, and hand signals in the likes of Microsoft Kinect, Sony Wii, interior lighting, and otherwise by voice or eyesight recognition), or Google Glass, and future tech., will likewise still demand contributions from multifaceted IT personnel.
7. Predictive Analytics.
Big Data is here to stay, due to the proliferation of ways in which it is collected, and the depth and detail with which it is being concatenated. Businesses will need ever-more powerful and intuitive ways to crunch and package its content, whether for ERP, CRM, or other predictive data analytics.[43] We already see automated resume sorting, but the human eye and brain will still be needed to develop and tweak the software, perform quality checks, and deal with data input delays (illegible writing that won’t scan, jammed paper in scanner input feeds, and machine maintenance and downtime for whatever reason).
ANALYSIS:
Rightly Forecast to Stay.
While the 2012 ICTC briefing identified 3 (“three”) specific areas of greatest need and growth potential in the prevailing IT skills shortage: Mobile Computing, Cloud Computing, and creative online content (Social Business),[44] IBM’s study of the global IT picture found a fourth: Business Analytics.[45] Looking at the above 7 areas, Cloud computing touches (at least), 1, 5, 6, and 7; Business Analytics, touches (at least), 3, 4, 6, and 7; Mobile Computing, touches (at least), 2, 4, 6, and 5; and Social Business, touches (at most), 1 through 7. I see no way that IT jobs or career paths can disappear any time soon. The health of that sector may well ebb and flow, with economic growth and job prospects fluctuating back and forth; but ITs adaptability, persistence, and traction (APT), give it true staying-power as a criss-crossing, sub-factor of production supporting that new factor of production, “information” – both of which now span mere land, labor, and capital,[46] and thusly remain indispensable bedrocks of modern and future society.
Wrongly Forecast to Go.
Similarly, regarding the 4 (“four”) specific IT roles identified for re-imagination or extinction,[47] vis-à-vis the above 7 areas: Programming; Datacenter; Data Technology; and Security. With regard to programming, the author states that the popular or most common computer languages will change. I agree, but the older languages will not die-out, due to the reasons I gave above. Similarly, with regard to data technology, the author states that the new and evolving paradigms will require IT professionals who are both more multifunctional and more capable of multitasking across different cost centres in the organization (IT, data analytics, PR, R&D). With this, I also agree, because up-skilling should be a constant when the going is good, and retraining should remain an option should the paradigm shift.
My disagreements arise with regard to the author’s predictions for IT’s datacenter functions[48] and IT’s security functions,[49] which will supposedly be forever and irretrievably changed by Unified Communications (UC) protocols, outsourced to third-parties, and otherwise surpassed or subsumed by and within the ambit of, a variety of Cloud Services Providers (CSPs).
Datacenter, specifically.
With regard to datacenter functions, machines can still not fully administer themselves, whether it is an airliner on autopilot, a nuclear power station, the switching center of a railway system, or a conveyor belt – which is supposed to stop by itself when something clogs the mechanism, but still has an emergency stop mechanism for the occasional “human” intervention. I think that any prediction of the demise of these jobs and functions is premature or wishful thinking at best, and ill-advised at worst.
Security, specifically.
With regard to security functions, it is worthwhile to note that evolving data protection and privacy standards set-out by legislation, as well as industry best practices across several fields, are severely limiting the extent to which an entity can outsource the “responsibility” that it does and must hold in-house, for the ultimate security of customer or client data; especially with regard to Personally Identifiable Information (PII), including within the financial services industry, and Personal Health Information (PHI), including within the healthcare sector. This fact, alone, will mandate the persistence of the need for in-house skill sets in “security standardization, procedures, and auditing”[50], due to the necessity of verifying: (i) that third-party providers can and do perform as promised and required by law; (ii) that breach notification is timely and properly conducted, and that third-parties are aware of their contractual and legal responsibilities, as applicable; and (iii) that loss prevention, IT, managerial, and legal personal are all on the same page with regard to ERP, outsourcing, risk mitigation, and regulatory compliance across the entire IT ecosystem – whether in-house physical, in-house virtual, outsourced (including Cloud and offshoring), BYOD, or otherwise. This security matrix must be complete, as omitted input will lead to omitted considerations, and avoidable losses that could rise to be in the extreme.
Even the much maligned practice of offshoring can have a net benefit to the outsourcing economy by pushing those it leaves behind into higher, more skilled, and managerial roles that are needed locally.
“Outsourcing can help create opportunities that didn’t exist before,” […]. Recruiting more bodies in another country can “upskill” Canadian IT workers, boosting them into higher level managerial positions,[…]. “The jobs are slightly different than what they may have been before, but it actually is an economic addition, not necessarily a detractor from the economy and from the employment landscape.”[51]
CONCLUSION:
For the final word on this issue, I think Stephen C. Ehrman, summarized it best, when he wrote that:
“Each predictable doubling of chip power enables the development of surprising new tools for thinking, analyzing, studying, creating, and communicating in the world. Products and professions erupt, altering the content of some discipline, creating new fields, and compelling new forms of interdisciplinary collaboration in the wider world. The level of education required for many jobs is increasing as well. So technological change in the wider world both increases the number of people who need an education and changes what it is they need to learn as well.”[52]
I think that should do it!
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Author:
Ekundayo George is a sociologist and a lawyer, with over a decade of legal experience including business law and counseling (business formation, outsourcing, commercial leasing, healthcare privacy, Cloud applications, social media, and Cybersecurity); diverse litigation, as well as ADR; and regulatory practice (planning and zoning, environmental controls, landlord and tenant, and GRC – governance, risk, and compliance investigations, audits, and counseling) in both Canada and the United States. He is licensed to practice law in New York, New Jersey, and Washington, D.C. Please See: http://www.ogalaws.com
He is an experienced strategic and management consultant; sourcing, managing, and delivering on high stakes, strategic projects with multiple stakeholders and multidisciplinary teams. Please See: http://www.simprime-ca.com
Backed by courses in management, organizational behaviour and micro-organizational behaviour, and a Certificate in Field Security from the United Nations Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS), in New York, Mr. George is also a writer, tweeter and blogger (as time permits), and a published author in Environmental Law & Policy (National Security aspects).
Hyperlinks to external sites are provided to readers of this blog as a courtesy and convenience, only, and no warranty is made or responsibility assumed by either or both of George Law Offices and Strategic IMPRIME Consulting & Advisory, Inc. (“S’imprime-ça”), in whole or in part for their content, or their accuracy, or their availability.
This article does not constitute legal advice or create any lawyer-client relationship.
[1] Kerry Doyle, MBA. IT Roles Facing Extinction. Published on globalknowledge.com by Global Knowledge Training LLC, 2012. Online: >http://images.globalknowledge.com/wwwimages/pdfs/SR_IT_Roles_Facing_Extinction.pdf<
[2] Patrick Gray. HP and BlackBerry abandon in-house tablet ecosystems. Published in “Tablets in the Enterprise”, on techrepublic.com, May 24, 2013. Online: >http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tablets/hp-and-blackberry-abandon-in-house-tablet-ecosystems/3428?tag=nl.e101&s_cid=e101&ttag=e101<
[3] Tribute to the late Professor Albert Chinualumogu (Chinua) Achebe, (1930-2013), author of the timeless classic “Things Fall Apart” (first published in A.D. 1958).
[4] A sometimes heated debate persists on whether or not the United States is currently experiencing a skills shortage in graduates of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). See e.g. (severe shortage exists): Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). The Ongoing Impact of the Recession – Recruiting and Skills Gap. Published on shrm.org, March 12, 2013. Online: >http://www.shrm.org/Research/SurveyFindings/Articles/Pages/SHRM-Recession-Recruiting-Skill-Gaps-Technology.aspx<; see contra (no shortage found): Economic Policy Institute (EPI).Hal Salzman, Daniel Kuehn, and B. Lindsay Lowell. Guestworkers in the high-skill U.S. labor market: An analysis of supply, employment, and wage trends. Published in “Immigration”, on epi.org, April 24, 2013. Online:
>http://www.epi.org/publication/bp359-guestworkers-high-skill-labor-market-analysis/<
[5] In Canada, however, the skills shortage issue appears better settled – it exists! See e.g. Namir Anani, President and CEO of the Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC). Briefing – HUMA – Fixing The Skills Gap and Understanding the Labour Shortages, at page 2. Mr. Anani delivered this briefing in Ottawa, Canada, on April 4, 2012, before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities. Published on ictc-ctic.ca. Online: >http://www.ictc-ctic.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/ICTC_HUMAPresentation_EN_04-12.pdf<
[6] Joe McKendrick. Almost 1.7 Million Cloud-Related Jobs Went Unfilled in 2012: Estimate. Published in “Tech”, on forbes.com, December 21, 2012. Online: >http://www.forbes.com/sites/joemckendrick/2012/12/21/almost-1-7-million-cloud-related-jobs-went-unfilled-in-2012-estimate/<
[7] National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). NIST Cloud Computing Program. Online: >http://www.nist.gov/itl/cloud/index.cfm<
[8] PCI Security Standards Council: Cloud Special interest Group. PCI Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), Version 2.0 – Information Supplement: PCI DSS Cloud Computing Guidelines, at 4. Released March, 2013. Online: >https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/documents/information_supplement_11.3.pdf< Software as a Service (SaaS), is there defined by PCI SSC as: “[c]apability for clients to use the provider’s applications running on a cloud infrastructure. The applications are accessible from various client devices through either a thin client interface, such as a web browser, or a program interface”. See also Ekundayo George. Data Protection and Retention in the Cloud: Getting it Right, at Note 1. Published on ogalaws.wordpress.com, March 11, 2013. Online: >https://ogalaws.wordpress.com/2013/03/11/data-protection-and-retention-in-the-cloud-getting-it-right/< SaaS offerings generally include tools for processing, analysis, accounting, CRM, and back-office functions, as delivered on a “pay by use or increment” basis.
[9] Michael Hafner, Mukhtiar Memon, and Ruth Breu. SeAAS – A Reference Architecture for Security Services in SOA. Published 1.9.09 in the Journal of Universal Computer Science (JUCS), vol. 15, no. 15 (2009), 2916-2936, at 2924. Online: >http://www.jucs.org/jucs_15_15/seaas_a_reference_architecture/jucs_15_15_2916_2936_hafner.pdf<
Security as a Service (SecaaS), is there defined by the authors, as:
“[…] the delivery of security functionality over infrastructure components in a service-oriented manner. For SOA, this means that security services are accessed through common Web services technologies and standards”.
As stated in that publication, SecaaS offerings generally encompasses services for: authentication, authorization, security compliance, security interoperability, cryptography and message processing, protocol-based security, and security monitoring and auditing.
[10] PCI Security Standards Council: Cloud Special interest Group. PCI Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), Version 2.0 – Information Supplement: PCI DSS Cloud Computing Guidelines, at 4. Released March, 2013. Online: >https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/documents/information_supplement_11.3.pdf< Platform as a Service (PaaS), is there defined by PCI SSC as: “[c]apability for clients to deploy their applications (created or acquired) onto the cloud infrastructure, using programming languages, libraries, services, and tools supported by the provider”. See also Ekundayo George. Data Protection and Retention in the Cloud: Getting it Right, at Note 2. Published on ogalaws.wordpress.com, March 11, 2013. Online: >https://ogalaws.wordpress.com/2013/03/11/data-protection-and-retention-in-the-cloud-getting-it-right/< PaaS offerings generally include tools for email, online backup, or desktops on demand, as well as middleware and raw development platforms.
[11] PCI Security Standards Council: Cloud Special interest Group. PCI Data Security Standard (PCI DSS), Version 2.0 – Information Supplement: PCI DSS Cloud Computing Guidelines, at 4. Released March, 2013. Online: >https://www.pcisecuritystandards.org/documents/information_supplement_11.3.pdf< Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), is there defined by PCI SSC as: “[c]apability for clients to utilize the provider’s processing, storage, networks, and other fundamental computing resources to deploy and run operating systems, applications and other software on a cloud infrastructure”. See also Ekundayo George. Data Protection and Retention in the Cloud: Getting it Right, at Note 3. Published on ogalaws.wordpress.com, March 11, 2013. Online: >https://ogalaws.wordpress.com/2013/03/11/data-protection-and-retention-in-the-cloud-getting-it-right/< IaaS offerings generally include tools for collaboration, integration, and visualization, in scalable storage and server capacity on demand.
[12] Ekundayo George. Data Protection and Retention in the Cloud: Getting it Right, at Note 4. Published on ogalaws.wordpress.com, March 11, 2013. Online: >https://ogalaws.wordpress.com/2013/03/11/data-protection-and-retention-in-the-cloud-getting-it-right/< Network as a Service (NaaS), generally includes advanced virtualization tools such as bandwidth-on-demand for multiple VPNs-on-demand, and for cloud-to-cloud networking on-demand.
[13] Data as a Service (DaaS), generally includes the hosting and delivery-on-call of data that is both form factor independent and software independent, as its storage (static) and delivery (formatted) states will differ, and the data will only be transformed from one to the other as and when needed, and as optimized to form factor or use. Increasing data analytics and in-house ownership of the crunched result, will spur growth in this DaaS (author).
[14] Migration as a Service (MaaS), refers to the transmission or translocation of clientele (users of blogs, wikis, chats, or other collaborative portals), data and databases (documents, files, spreadsheets and folders), capital operations and office suites (applications, business processes, or operating systems from version to version, or from server to server on premise), or services (emails and VOIP/voicemails); whether from one platform or service provider, to another (on-premise to cloud transforming capital expenditures to operating expenses, or cloud to cloud). This can be done on a self-serve basis, or through a vendor. The volume of data that many companies now command otherwise makes migrations quite expensive, and implies that MaaS will remain a growth area (author).
[15] Christine Burns, Network World. Cloud careers: It’s a seller’s market. Published on networkworld.com, October 8, 2012. Online: >http://www.networkworld.com/supp/2012/enterprise5/100812-ecs-cloud-careers-262741.html<
[16] Id.
[17] Joe McKendrick. Almost 1.7 Million Cloud-Related Jobs Went Unfilled in 2012: Estimate. Published in “Tech”, on forbes.com, December 21, 2012. Online: >http://www.forbes.com/sites/joemckendrick/2012/12/21/almost-1-7-million-cloud-related-jobs-went-unfilled-in-2012-estimate/<
[18] See Ekundayo George. Ctrl-Shift-Del: 2013’s Top 5 Technology Trends for Consumers. Published on ogalaws.wordpress.com, March 16, 2013. Online: >https://ogalaws.wordpress.com/2013/03/16/ctrl-shift-del-2013s-top-5-technology-trends-for-consumers/<
[19] Id.
[20] See e.g. Ekundayo George. Social Media Policies: Why have them, and what should they cover? Published on ogalaws.wordpress.com, May 29, 2013. Online: >https://ogalaws.wordpress.com/2013/05/29/social-media-policies-why-have-them-and-what-should-they-cover/<
[21] I see these enabling, at the very least: (i) ”eNUB“ (email, number, and URL banking); and (ii) “Work-Shifting”.
(i) eNUB will be the response of entities and employers to salesforce BYOD, now better able to take existing contacts, prospects, vendors, and sales peers with them, due to all knowing that contact number by heart. Hence, even if that person’s entire eRolodex gets remote-wiped, they can still be reached by their now “good old friends”. So, with growing number portability and VOIP, employers will own and manage banks of mobile contact numbers (in addition to the URLs and emails they already tag-onto/under domain names), to prevent salesforce lead-bleed.
(ii) The growing ability, through advancing mobile device management (MDM) technologies to stop and start the delivery of emails, and to route and unroute calls to BYOD-enabled workers so that they are not troubled (into working costly overtime), outside the standard workday, will enable employers to more easily juggle the workflow between permanent and contract employees in different time-zones through disclosed/undisclosed jobsharing arrangements. Hence, less downtime in a new, cloud-enabled world of work-shifting, as opposed to shift-work.
See Tom Kaneshige, CIO. Which Workers Are the Best Fit for BYOD? Published on cio.com, May 14, 2013. Online: >http://www.cio.com/article/733399/Which_Workers_Are_the_Best_Fit_for_BYOD_?taxonomyId=600007<
[22] IDC. Quantitative Estimates of the Demand for Cloud Computing in Europe and the Likely Barriers to Up-take. SMART 2011/0045. D4 – Final Report, at 30. Published on ec.europa.eu, July 13, 2012. Online: >http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/cloudcomputing/docs/quantitative_estimates.pdf<
[23] Id. at 9.
[24] Id. at 9.
[25] Marianne Kolding. IDC White Paper. Adoption of Cloud: Private Cloud is Current Flavour but Hybrid Cloud is Fast Becoming a Reality, at 1-2. Published on Infosys.com, September, 2012. Online: >http://www.infosys.com/cloud/features-opinions/Documents/hybrid-cloud-becoming-reality.pdf<
[26] Id. at 2.
[27] Id. at 3.
[28] Peter Brown and Leonard T. Nuara, Co-chairs. Cloud Computing 2011: Cut Through the Fluff & Tackle the Critical Stuff. Intellectual Property Course Handbook Series. Number G-1055, at 49. Published in 2011 by the Practicing Law Institute, New York (PLI).
[29] TechRepublic. Executive’s Guide to Best practices in SAAS and the Cloud, at 14. Published in “Whitepapers”, on ZDNet.com, March 2013. Online: >http://www.zdnet.com/executive-guide-to-best-practices-in-saas-and-the-cloud-free-ebook-7000012032/< The author quotes Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT.
[30] World Economic Forum and INSEAD. The Global Information Technology Report 2013: Growth and Jobs in a Hyperconnected World. Foreword by Cesare Mainardi, Chief Executive Officer, Booz and Company, at vii. Published on weforum.org, 2013. Online: >http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_GITR_Report_2013.pdf<
The author takes care to point-out that while digitization brings benefits in both productivity and employment growth, there “may well come” a point of disequilibrium. Similarly, there is a delicate balance to be found for the 3 (“three”) roles on the input matrix, being the roles of financier, facilitator, and direct developer. Where and when the ratio is off, the national cake will not rise to meet the demand, or otherwise respond on command.
[31] See e.g. Guarav Kumar, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Computer Applications, Chitkara University, Rajpura, Punjab. Career Guide: Career in Mobile Computing and Wireless Technology. Published in Employment News Weekly, 25 May – 31 May, 2013, issue (No. 08), on employmentnews.gov.in. Online: >http://www.employmentnews.gov.in/career_in_mobile.asp< This article and the sheer diversity of the career streams here listed provide a very clear idea of just how vast the mobile field now is, and promises to become.
[32] See e.g. Kara Swisher. “Physically Together”: Here’s the Internal Yahoo No-Work-From-Home Memo for Remote Workers and Maybe More. Published on allthingsd.com, February 22, 2013. Online: >http://allthingsd.com/20130222/physically-together-heres-the-internal-yahoo-no-work-from-home-memo-which-extends-beyond-remote-workers/<
[33] American Society for Quality (ASQ). Continuous Improvement. Published on asq.org, at Continuous Improvement Model – Learning Resources. Online: >http://asq.org/learn-about-quality/continuous-improvement/overview/overview.html<
[34] Id.
[35] Jonathan Huebner, Ph.D. A possible declining trend for worldwide innovation. Published 2005, in Technological Forecasting & Social Change 72 (2005) 980-986, at 981, on sciencedirect.com. Online: > http://accelerating.org/articles/InnovationHuebnerTFSC2005.pdf<
“There is a general consensus that technology is advancing exponentially, and that this advance will continue into the distant future. The basic assumption behind this view is that either there is no limit to technological advance, or if there is a limit, then we are far from reaching it.”
[36] See Infra, note 41.
[37] Visa. The Future of Technology and Payments report: More of the Same (2nd edition, printable version), at pp. 10-11. Published by Visa, on visaeurope.com, April 24, 2013. Online: >http://www.visaeurope.com/en/about_us/industry_insights/tech_trends.aspx<
“We therefore expect to see the progressive deployment of so-called Microelectromechanical systems (MEMs). These minute devices, generally smaller than a square-millimetre, typically comprise of a microprocessor plus a sensor or actuator. Already, they are common components within consumer devices acting, for example, as accelerometers or gyroscopes. (…)”.
“For the future, the use of MEMs seems destined to become more widespread. More exotic sensors will become available (capable, for example, or checking blood pressure or glucose levels). Their proliferation could therefore enable the so-called “internet of things” (…). And, in the coming years, IBM holds out the prospect of a trillion connected d devices (…) – that equates to one hundred smart objects for every person on our planet”.
[38] Megan M. Kearney, Esq. Faster Than the Speed of Law: Technological Advancements Generate a Host of Novel Legal Concerns. Originally published in The Philadelphia Lawyer, Winter 2011, “Intellectual property law”, pepperlaw.com. Online: >http://www.pepperlaw.com/pdfs/PhilaLawyer_Kearney.pdf<
[39] See e.g. Lucas Mearian, Computerworld. The Time is Right for an ‘IT Petting Zoo’. Published on cio.com, June 5, 2013. Online: >http://www.cio.com/article/734452/The_Time_is_Right_for_an_IT_Petting_Zoo_?taxonomyId=600007<
[40] Canadian Manufacturing Daily Staff. Ontario firm gets federal funding for wearable lithium-ion pack. Published on canadianmanufacturing.com, April 23, 2013. Online: >http://www.canadianmanufacturing.com/general/ontario-firm-gets-federal-funding-for-wearable-lithium-ion-pack-101574<
[41] Fundación de la Innovación, Bankinter, and Accenture. Future Trends Forum (FTF) Series, Number 15: The Internet of Things – In a Connected World of Smart Objects. Chapter 3, at page 37. Published on fundacionbankinter.org, in 2011. Online: >http://www.fundacionbankinter.org/system/documents/8189/original/XV_FTF_Interneto_of_things.pdf<
“More than half a century on from the days of mainframe computers that took up whole rooms, components are becoming smaller and smaller, enabling faster and more powerful computers to be developed. This physical layer occupies less space, making it easier to connect practically anything, anywhere, anytime. What we are seeing is the phenomenon of miniaturization”.
[42] Supra note 37.
[43] Toni Bowers. IT needs to understand the move from BI to data analytics. Published in “Tech Decision Maker”, on techrepublic.com, May 28, 2013. Online: >http://www.techrepublic.com/blog/tech-manager/it-needs-to-understand-the-move-from-bi-to-data-analytics/8277?tag=nl.e099&s_cid=e099&ttag=e099<
[44] Namir Anani, President and CEO of the Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC). Briefing – HUMA – Fixing The Skills Gap and Understanding the Labour Shortages. Mr. Anani delivered this briefing in Ottawa, Canada, on April 4, 2012, before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Human Resources, Skills and Social Development and the Status of Persons with Disabilities. Published on ictc-ctic.ca. Online: >http://www.ictc-ctic.ca/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/ICTC_HUMAPresentation_EN_04-12.pdf<
[45] See IBM. Fast Track to the Future: The 2012 IBM Tech Trends Report. Published by the IBM Center for Applied Insights, on ibm.com, December, 2012. Online: >https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/blogs/techtrends/?lang=en<
[46] Supra note 41, at 18. “Just as in an agricultural economy, the factors of production were land and labor, and in an industrial economy they were capital and labor, information has become the production factor of the twenty-first century”.
[47] Kerry Doyle, MBA. IT Roles Facing Extinction. Published globalknowledge.com, by Global Knowledge Training LLC, 2012. Online: >http://images.globalknowledge.com/wwwimages/pdfs/SR_IT_Roles_Facing_Extinction.pdf<
[48] Id. at 3. “Gone are the service technicians responsible for rewiring and maintenance. UC makes those skills unnecessary. In the future, one or two systems analysts will centrally handle communication implementation and flow from within the datacenter”.
[49] Id. at 4. “Within organizations, gone are the traditional back-up and recovery skill sets which will be relegated to third-party providers”. (…) “Gone are the technicians who relied on security standardization, procedures, and auditing”.
[50] Id. at 4.
[51] Brian Bloom. IDC: Offshoring IT keeps Canadian firms competitive. Published for Computing Canada in itworldcanada.com, June 14, 2012. The quotation is from Jason Trussell, senior vice-president and Canadian regional manager at iGate Inc. Online: >http://www.itworldcanada.com/news/idc-offshoring-it-keeps-canadian-firms-competitive/145611<
[52] Stephen C. Ehrman, Ph.D. Technology and Revolution in Education: Ending the Cycle of Failure. Published in Liberal Education, Fall (2000) 40-49, at “Double Double Toil and Trouble: Moore’s Law”. This penultimate draft of the final article is available through The TLT Group (Teaching, Learning, and Technology), on tltgroup.org. Online: >http://www.tltgroup.org/resources/V_Cycle_of_Failure.html
Ogalaws 