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The New-ish Technologies That Will Alter Your Career
Nerval's Lobster writes Over at Dice, there's a discussion of the technologies that could actually alter how you work (and what you work on) over the next few years, including 3D printing, embedded systems, and evolving Web APIs. Granted, predicting the future with any accuracy is a nigh-impossible feat, and a lot of nascent technologies come with an accompanying amount of hype. But given how these listed technologies have actually been around in one form or another for years, and don't seem to be fading away, it seems likely that they'll prove an increasing factor in how we live and work over the next decade and beyond. For those who have no interest in mastering aspects of the so-called "Internet of Things," or other tech on this list, never fear: if the past two decades have taught us anything, it's that lots of old hardware and software never truly goes away, either (hi, mainframes!).
In IT, there isn't really much that is new. Cloud systems evolved from offsite data centers. However, there are a few things which are important:
1: IoT. Securing these is like trying to use bandaids after someone stood in front of a 3000 rpm gunship weapon. However, if it does take off, one will have to factor in every doodad that might require Wi-Fi, or might have a 3G card so it can phone home and the black hats can hack into it.
2: Separation of the Internet into sub-networks. It is only a matter of time before this happens. With the state-sponsored armies of blackhats, you can't win a war of defense. The only real way to keep your stuff secure (as a business) is to separate out functions with physically different networks (SIPRNet, NIPRnet are examples), so the Internet is not the only means of communication. This involves real leased lines, additional fiber laid, and additional network fabric, perhaps virtual circuits, so only machines that are configured to communicate with each other can.
3: Bit rot, CAS systems, and ensuring files archived are still readable in a media-agnostic way. That way, if finance needs a document from 2005, it doesn't matter if it is on tape or disk, they can obtain it with minimal operator intervention.