back to article IT bods: Cloud won't turn us into dinosaurs

Cloud computing won’t lead to IT workers giving up the day job, according to a new survey. CWJobs found that 40 per cent of 1,300 IT bods expected to see more jobs becoming available thanks to the arrival of cloud computing, which has garnered interest among UK company bosses over the past year. However, plenty of IT …

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  1. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge
    Grenade

    A Duffer in a Sinecure is a Quango, and in Intelligence Circles, a Disgraceful Unnecessary Expense

    Cloud Control ....... is Perfect for Better Governments and Beta Virtual Governance for its IT Force neither Suffers nor Entertains Special Access Permissions to the Intellectually Challenged and Mentally Feeble.

    Now who in the UK's Coalition Love In is into such Hi Tech Wizardry? Anyone with an Inkling to Press Onward and Upward to Higher Level of Human Development and Perceptions Management or is it Sub Prime Ministerial Business as Usual? Who is carrying the Cyber Security torch and Failing to Blaze a Trail and Light the Way.

  2. Eduard Coli
    Gates Horns

    Jobs?

    More jobs in Bangalore perhaps.

    First they told us that manufacturing was not important because we would have more and better paying work in services. When services was taken over by offshore sweatshops and visa abusers they told us that it was not important because we would be consumers. What will we be when they tell us consumerism is not important because we no longer can afford anything?

    Evil Bill because he may make yet another trip to DC to lobby Congress to remove visa caps.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    old dogs

    I fully expect to be able to employ a load of old (some very old) skills in the cloud - I just need to remember the new buzz words used to describe them.

    ( can we have a "I've been doing this shit way too long" icon ? )

    1. AndrueC Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      What goes around comes around

      Yup. It's all basically the same shit with a different name. The only change seems to be that as technology improves it gets more and more dressed up. I'll make a prediction. In twenty years time the industry will swing back to decentralised computing.

  4. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

    Really?

    Cloud computing will lead to fewer overall global IT jobs. As soon as the cost of adequate bandwidth (from multiple providers in case of outage) combined with the cost of the remote IT services becomes cheaper than buying your own gear and paying your own geeks the role of the modern systems administrator is toast. Utility computing, if it really takes off, will allow a greater number of servers and networks to be overseen by a smaller number of admins.

    At the very least this will cause huge downward pressure on systems administrator's wages; they will now be competing against a largely commoditised utility service. More than likely it will push all the sysadmin jobs into the large datacenters and relegate "systems administrators" firmly to the past.

    This won't be happening tomorrow, but five years from now? Ten?

    I am sure there will always be a need for sysadmins, but the global total number of positions will probably contract as cloud computing takes off. Time to retrain for something else.

    1. Jim 59

      Cloud = just more computers

      It's just more computers and associated kit. If you are in IT, it just means more business. The outsourcing wave of the late 90s/noughties is being sold under the label "cloud" because it sounds more attractive. Are you an expert in operating systems, storage, backups, comms ? Congratulations, you are a cloud expert.

      IT cannot be universally standardised. The market changes too regularly and the whirlpool of techonologies spins too fast. Your IT skills will be demanded in the coming years in ways we can't imagine now, in markets that haven't even been invented yet. There will be more IT jobs, not less.

    2. Mark 65

      Fewer IT jobs?

      It's a bit difficult to get any competitive advantage out of your IT if everyone is using the same shit. I'm with everyone else, this is just the same old stuff with a new dress on.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Cloud computing

    While I am sure it has some sensible uses, the only people it is engaging at the moment at companies desperate to sell server/disk time, tech pundits needing to sell copy and muppet boses who are desperate to impress the board of their company with some great new idea!

    The rest of us shop-floor IT types will hold our judgement until something genuinely useful comes out of this, having seen fads come and go for many a year. I am sure something good will come from this, when fads come there is usually something useful to be salvaged from the wreckage.

    Worked in places in the last 2-3 years still running kit that should have been recycled into baked bean cans many years ago. Someone has to keep all the old crap running until the users decide they no longer need 15 year old XYZ application!

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Does this mean there will be a "cloud computing" bubble next?

    Cool, I will sell my skills as a technology leader, convince a company to buy a whole bunch of PS3s with Linux on it (after hacking the firmware, obviously) then draw a couple of pretty pictures, sell the company for millions, blame the developers when it doesn't work, and bugger off to the Bahamas.

    Aaah, don't you love the fact that managers never learn?

  7. James 93
    Unhappy

    Bugger

    Looks like im taking a course in how to empty bins....

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    All it takes is a large system down time....

    ..... and pop goes the cloud.

    It's similar to VoIP. You have to gauge just how much damage and financial losses would be caused by any down time. You have no control over any of the cloud.

    I look at it as being another tool to resolve an issue, and not as a whole solution.

    I feel sorry for those who are swayed by the salesmans hype and junked their TDM switches for VoIP. Only to find it's not as all signing and dancing as claimed. And where are all those savings????

  9. David Pickering
    Thumb Down

    what?

    last time i checked, 'cloud computing' was just some bullshit bingo phrase managers like to bang around that basically means 'the internet'.

    fail.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Observations

    Cloud will continue to evolve and expand, but expect some absolute howler cock-ups in the years to come. Devolve again? Sure. But make sure the cloud is your storage only... meta-data it, so anyone accessing it independently will only enjoy screens of digital confetti.

    IT job opportunities will contract and expand, depending on the ratio of numpty HR, incompetent management, cost vs. value, and churn of technology. If technology ever hits the sartorial equivalent of China's grey suit, then find another vocation, coz you'll start to get a free server in your cornflakes packet.

    The more complex the infrastructure behind the GUI screen, the less people want to know.

    The more diverse the infrastructure behind the GUI screen, the more holes there will be.

    Dumb down the management interface, trust the software, lose the expertise, offshore the work, get royally screwed... and don't even know about it.

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