The
2010 IBM Tech Trends Survey, conducted online by IBM
developerWorks in August and September, garnered responses
from a wide range of IT professionals, with expertise
in areas such as software testing, system and network
administration, software architecture, and enterprise
and web application development. Thirty percent of the
respondents are IBM Business Partners. No IBM employee
responses are included in the analysis.
The findings from this survey validate recent developerWorks
investments in content and resources dedicated to cloud
computing, mobile application development, and industries,
and encourage our ongoing investments in these areas.
Cloud computing to overtake on-premise computing
Nine out of 10 respondents to the survey, which reached
more than 2,000 IT professionals worldwide, anticipate
cloud computing overtaking on-premise computing by 2015
as the primary way organizations acquire IT.
Figure 1: Responses to the question,"How do you
rate the potential for cloud computing to overtake on-premise
computing as the primary way organizations acquire IT
by 2015?".¹
developerWorks was quick
to recognize the growing importance of cloud computing
well before conducting this survey. Last year we initiated
a dedicated team effort around cloud computing and published
dozens of cloud-related how-to articles, tutorials,
demos, podcasts, and other resources. This year we further
expanded our cloud focus, launching a new dedicated
Cloud computing zone, and we're on pace to increase
our cloud-related materials by more than 100 percent.
We also added dozens of new developerWorks groups and
discussion forums focused on cloud computing.
"The Cloud computing
zone offers a wide array of material, from a new to
cloud computing section for people who are just getting
started, to in-depth technical articles, briefings and
products available in a cloud environment for those
already working on cloud projects," explains Aimee
Dean, developerWorks Cloud computing editor.
"We're really excited about our community-based
growth,” Dean adds. “At present, there are more than
40 groups on developerWorks devoted to some aspect of
cloud computing.” And the community around cloud (like
all developerWorks communities) includes experts both
inside and outside of IBM.
"We talk to the experts, whether they are IBM
Cloud designers and planners, cloud application developers
and evangelists from IBM product brands, or outside
programmers posing a question on one of our forums or
chats,” says Dean. “We reach out to potential authors
and in the process learn what the people on the front
lines of cloud computing think are the important topics.
We listen to our community managers. And then we develop
materials to support the interests of developerWorks
Cloud users."
In October we're hosting
virtual Cloud computing for developers events to help
developers learn how to solve business and technical
challenges in the cloud. And we continue to expand our
efforts globally through more dedicated local-language
efforts such as our Cloud zones in China and Japan,
Brazil, and Spanish-speaking Americas.
The majority (55 percent) of survey respondents see
mobile application development for devices such as iPhone
and Android, and even tablet PCs like iPad and PlayBook,
surpassing application development on other platforms
over the next five years.
developerWorks editors closely
follow the market and noticed increased interest on
mobile topics, including Android and iPhone. As a result
we address this key topic extensively, providing a wide
range of content and resources. We have already published
twice as much technical content and resources focused
on iPhone, Android, and mobile computing in 2010 than
we did last year. For example, developerWorks has published
dozens of how-to articles and resources about Android
and iPhone over the past few years. Additionally, we
just launched the first developerWorks mobile application
for the Apple iPhone that makes it easy to build your
skills and interact with your peers on developerWorks
without having to be at your computer. We detail how
we built this iPhone application in a how-to article
by Nick Poore and Ami Dewar of developerWorks.
Figure 2: Responses to the question,"Do you see mobile
application development surpassing application development
on other platforms over the next five years?".¹
When considering a shorter timeframe, two-fifths of
respondents indicate that "mobile" will be
one of "the most in demand areas for software development"
in 2011. One-third (33 percent) indicate cloud and software
as a service will be in high demand. A quarter of the
respondents expect high demand for social media, business
analytics, and industry-specific areas.
Figure 3: Responses to the question,"For 2011 expectations,
how would you rate the following as the most in demand
areas for software development?".¹
Looking beyond general
technical and IT expertise, more than 90 percent of
respondents believe it is important to have specific
"domain knowledge of the industry you work in."
Nearly two thirds (63 percent) admit they lack knowledge
about their industry. This is a gap developWorks is
addressing with our new Industries zone.
"We started developerWorks Industries as a place
to aggregate industry-specific technical articles, tutorials,
and resources," says Dan Hattenberger, developerWorks
Industries editor. "We knew we had good industry-specific
articles in developerWorks, but using search terms like
'healthcare' or 'banking' returned way too many false
hits. So we created Industries to make it easy for developers
to find technical content, collaboration sites, and
other resources specific to their industry." The
Industries zone also is producing more content and resources
to help IT professionals gain more industry knowledge.
As Hattenberger notes, "We’re just getting started.
Authors are busy creating over 30 articles to appear
in the next several months."
Figure 4: Responses to the question, "Outside of
your technical, IT expertise, do you find that domain
knowledge of the industry you work in is ____."¹
Figure 5: Responses to the question, "Outside of
your technical, IT expertise, rate your current domain
knowledge of the industry you work in." ¹
When asked which industries offer "the best opportunity"
31 percent of respondents selected telecommunications,
and 21 percent chose financial services. developerWorks
already features five industries, including banking and
financial services, and is adding more industries, including
telecommunications, in the coming months.
Figure 6: Responses to the question, "If you could
pick a new industry in which to expand your IT career
based on where you think the best opportunity would
be, which would it be?".¹
developerWorks continues to keep tabs on industry trends.
In addition to employing surveys of our community, we
discuss trends with thought leaders, market experts,
and industry analysts inside and outside of IBM. We
interact with consultants, presenters, and attendees
at IBM and non-IBM industry conferences, and communicate,
both online and offline, with developers and IT professionals,
including our many esteemed authors who span the globe.
Our constant monitoring
of the industry landscape helps us recognize trends
even before surveys confirm they exist. This practice
led to our creating new zones dedicated to Industries
and Cloud computing, and led to our extensive collection
of mobile application development content and resources,
including two brand new HTML5 articles published just
this week, Data-driven interactive applications with
HTML5 and Ajax and Introducing HTML5 video: Why we need
HTML5 video and how to use it. HTML5 is no doubt a hot
topic today.
If you have insight to share about industry trends,
or want to request more content and resources on technology
X or product Y, let us know by commenting below.
¹
Survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 2
percent at a 95 percent level of confidence.
The author would like to thank Victoria Ovens for creating
the graphs in this article, Ferdinand Kolcak and Chuyi
(Jeremy) Zhang for their design, execution, and evaluation
work on this survey, and Katie Johnson and Lon Levitan
for their analysis and input.
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