IDC, Cisco survey assesses future IT staffing needs

Intersections provide hot jobs

IDC classified the intersections of where hot technologies and jobs meet as "significant IT opportunities" for current and future IT staffing, said Mark Leary, directing analyst at Cisco Services.

"From computing and networking resources to systems software resources, lots of the hot jobs function at these intersections and take advantage of automation, AI and machine learning." Rather than eliminating IT staff jobs, a lot of jobs take advantage of those same technologies, he added.

Organizations are preparing for future IT staffing by filling vacant IT positions from within rather than hiring from outside the company, then sending staff to training, if needed, according to the survey.

But technology workers still should investigate where the biggest challenges exist and determine where they may be most valued, Leary said.

"Quite frankly, IT people have to have greater understanding of the business processes and of the innovation that's going on within the lines of business and have much more of a customer focus."

The internet of things illustrates the complexity of emerging digital systems. Any IoT implementation requires from 10 to 12 major technologies to come together successfully, and the IT organization is seen as the place where that expertise lies, Leary said.

IDC's research found organizations place a high value on training and certifications. IDC found that 70% of IT leaders believe certifications are an indicator of a candidate's qualifications and 82% of digital transformation executives believe certifications speed innovation and new ways to support the business.

Network influences future IT staffing

IDC's results also reflect the changes going on within enterprise networking.

Digital transformation is raising the bar on networking staffs, specifically because it requires enterprises to focus on newer technologies, Leary said. The point of developing skills in network programming, for example, is to work with the capabilities of automation tools so they can access analytics and big data.

This isn't something that's evolutionary; it's revolutionary.

In 2015, only one in 15 Cisco-certified workers viewed network programming as critical to his or her job. By 2017, the percentage rose to one in four. "This isn't something that's evolutionary; it's revolutionary," Leary said.

While the traditional measure of success was to make sure the network was up and running with 99.999% availability, that goal is being replaced by network readiness, Leary said. "Now you need to know if your network is ready to absorb new applications or that new video stream or those new customers we just let on the network."

Leary is involved with making sure Cisco training and certifications are relevant and matched to jobs and organizational needs, he said. "We've been through a series of enhancements for the network programmability training we offer, and we continually add things to it," he added. Cisco also monitors customers to make sure they're learning about the right technologies and tools rather than just deploying technologies faster.

To meet the new networking demands, Cisco is changing its CCNA, CCNP and CCIE certifications in two different ways, Leary said. "We've developed a lot of new content that focuses on cybersecurity, network programming, cloud interactions and such because the person who is working in networking is doing that," he said. The other emphasis is to make sure networking staff understands language of other groups like software developers.