That's the same one from a while back, right? On Tue, May 19, 2009 at 11:56 AM, Zaphod Beeblebrox <zaph0d.b33bl3b...@gmail.com> wrote: > > By Linda Leung > > > > There are some things in life, like good manners, which never go out > of style, and there are other things, like clothing styles that fall > in and out of fashion, but when an IT skill falls out of favor it > rarely ever comes back. Here's our list of 10 dying IT skills. If any > of these skills are your main expertise, perhaps it's time to retrain. > > 1. Asynchronous Transfer Mode: ATM was popular in the late-1990s, > particularly among carriers, as the answer to overworked frame relay > for wide-area networking. It was considered more scalable than frame > relay and offered inherent QoS support. It was also marketed as a LAN > platform but that was its weakness. According to Wikipedia, ATM failed > to gain wide acceptance in the LAN where IP makes more sense for > unifying voice and data on the network. Wikipedia notes that ATM will > continue to be deployed by carriers that have committed to existing > ATM deployments, but the technology is increasingly challenged by > speed and traffic shaping requirements of converged voice and data > networks. A growing number of carriers are now using Multi-Protocol > Label Switching (MPLS), which integrates the label-switching > capabilities of ATM with the packet orientation of IP. IT skills > researcher Foote Partners listed ATM in its IT Skills and > Certification Pay Index as a noncertified IT skill that has decreased > in value in the last six month of 2008. > > 2. Novell NetWare: Novell's network operating system was the defacto > standard for LANs in the 1990s, running on more than 70% of enterprise > networks. But Novell failed to compete with the marketing might of > Microsoft. Novell tried to put up a good fight by acquiring > WordPerfect to compete with Windows Office, but that move failed to > ignite the market and Novell eventually sold WordPerfect to Corel in > 1996. Novell certifications such as Certified Novell Engineer, Master > Certified Novell Engineer, Certified Novell Certified Directory > Engineer, and Novell Administrator were once hot certs in the industry > but now they are featured in Foote Partners' list of skills that > decreased in value in 2008. Hiring managers want Windows Server and > Linux skills instead. > > 3. Visual J++: Skills pay for Microsoft's version of Java declined > 37.5% last year, according to the Foote Partners' study. The life of J+ > +, which is available with Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0, was not a > smooth one. Although Sun Microsystems licensed Java to Microsoft to > develop J++, Microsoft failed to implement some features of the > official Java standard while implementing other extensions of its own. > Sun sued Microsoft for licensing violations in a legal wrangle that > lasted three years. Microsoft eventually replaced J++ with > Microsoft .Net. > > 4. Wireless Application Protocol: Yes, people were able to browse the > Internet in the late 1990s before Apple's iPhone. Web site operators > would rewrite their content to the WAP's Wireless Markup Language, > enabling users to access Web services such as email, stock results and > news headlines using their cell phones and PDAs. WAP was not well > received at the beginning because WAP sites were slow and lacked the > richness of the Web. WAP has also seen different levels of uptake > worldwide because of the different wireless regulations and standards > around the world. WAP has since evolved and is a feature of Multimedia > Messaging Service, but there are now a new generation of competing > mobile Web browsers, including Opera Mobile and the iPhone's Safari > browser. > > 5. ColdFusion: ColdFusion users rave that this Web programming > language is easy to use and quick to jump into, but as many other > independent software tools have experienced, it's hard to compete with > products backed by expensive marketing campaigns from Microsoft and > others. The language was originally released in 1995 by Allaire, which > was acquired by Macromedia (which itself was purchased by Adobe). > Today, it superseded by Microsoft .Net, Java, PHP and the language of > the moment: open source Ruby on Rails. A quick search of the > Indeed.com job aggregator site returned 11,045 jobs seeking PHP skills > compared to 2,027 CF jobs. Even Ruby on Rails, which is a much newer > technology receiving a major boost when Apple packaged it with OS X > v10.5 in 2007, returned 1,550 jobs openings on Indeed.com. > > 6. RAD/Extreme Programming: Back in the late 1990s and early 2000s the > rapid application development and extreme programming development > philosophies resulted in quicker and more flexible programming that > embraced the ever changing needs of customers during the development > process. In XP, developers adapted to changing requirements at any > point during the project life rather than attempting to define all > requirements at the beginning. In RAD, developers embraced interactive > use of structured techniques and prototyping to define users' > requirements. The result was accelerated software development. > Although the skills were consistently the highest paying in Foote > Partners survey since 1999, they began to lose ground in 2003 due to > the proliferation of offshore outsourcing of applications development. > > 7. Siebel: Siebel is one skill that makes a recurring appearance in > the Foote Partners' list of skills that have lost their luster. Siebel > was synonymous with customer relationship management in the late-90s > and early 2000s, and the company dominated the market with a 45% share > in 2002. Founded by Thomas Siebel, a former Oracle executive with no > love lost for his past employer, Siebel competed aggressively with > Oracle until 2006 when it was ultimately acquired by the database > giant. Siebel's complex and expensive CRM software required experts to > install and manage. That model lost out to the new breed of software- > as-a-service (SaaS) packages from companies such as Salesforce.com > that deliver comparable software over the Web. According to the U.K.'s > ITJobsWatch.com site, Siebel experts command an average salary of > GBP52,684 ($78,564), but that's a slide from GBP55,122 a year ago. > Siebel is ranked 319 in the job research site's list of jobs in > demand, compared to 310 in 2008. > > 8. SNA: The introduction of IP and other Internet networking > technologies into enterprises in the 1990s signaled the demise of > IBM's proprietary Systems Network Architecture. According to > Wikipedia, the protocol is still used extensively in banks and other > financial transaction networks and so SNA skills continue to appear in > job ads. But permanent positions seeking SNA skills are few and far > between. ITJobsWatch.com noted that there were three opening for > permanent jobs between February and April, compared to 43 during the > same period last year. Meanwhile, companies such as HP offer > consultants with experience in SNA and other legacy skills such as > OpenVMS and Tru64 Unix for short-term assignments. > > 9. HTML: We're not suggesting the Internet is dead but with the > proliferation of easy to use WYSIWYG HTML editors enabling non-techies > to set up blogs and Web pages, Web site development is no longer a > black art. Sure, there's still a need for professional Web developers > (see the ColdFusion entry above for a discussion about Java and PHP > skills) but a good grasp of HTML isn't the only skill required of a > Web developer. Professional developers often have expertise in Java, > AJAX, C++ and .Net, among other programming languages. HTML as a skill > lost more than 40% of its value between 2001 and 2003, according to > Foote Partners. > > 10. COBOL: Is it dead or alive? This 40-year-old programming language > often appears in lists of dying IT skills but it also appears in as > many articles about organizations with legacy applications written in > Cobol having a hard time seeking workers with Cobol skills. IBM cites > statistics that 70% of the world's business data is still being > processed by Cobol applications. But how many of these applications > will remain in Cobol for the long term? Even IBM is pushing its > customers to "build bridges" and use service-oriented architecture to > "transform legacy applications and make them part of a fast and > flexible IT architecture." > About the Author > > Linda Leung is an independent writer/editor in California. Reach Linda > at leung...@gmail.com. > > > So if you want to love me > then darlin' don't refrain > Or I'll just end up walkin' > In the cold November rain > > > > >
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Want to reach the ColdFusion community with something they want? Let them know on the House of Fusion mailing lists Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:297291 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.5
