CNET posts an article about today’s IT staff becoming the obsolete Maytag washer repairman of tomorrow.
Yes and no. It all depends if the tech industry (well, Microsoft) will start building solid systems. More of my opinion after the jump.
There’s no doubt that Windows is more robust than ever but it has a lot further to go. If Linux continues to make inroads on the desktop it will need competent IT staff. Linux has come a long way, but it’s not as seamless as Windows. And the Mac works today and will continue to work well tomorrow with little IT expertise needed.
Servers will always require knowledgeable IT staff. Linux or Windows or Mac.
Web development has changed. I feel there’s more of a need now for specialists than five years ago. Anyone can learn HTML but very few can code PHP and build the database-driven web site. I still get clients who can’t do HTML – they’d rather send me the file to convert.
I agree with Gartner in that certain aspects of IT will turn, and have turned, into commodities. General PC support for instance. Other skills are specialized and will transform over time. Just when you think you had HTML tables figured out the W3C pumps out CSS. Then comes XML. Now AJAX.
IT specialists won’t become a Maytag repairman in the near future. Microsoft has assured us of that – their very omission of secure computing has created new products for what I call “anti-X” technology (anti-spyware, anti-virus, etc.).
IT staff will get paid less over time until a new technology comes out. Evolution and change is necessary, and good, for any industry. IT’s hey-day was the tech boom of the late 1990s and now it’s like any other industry.
If you really want to excel in any field become a visionary and design a product for the future. There’s always someone bigger ready to buy you out so you can retire early.
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