Virtual is the new Reality!
Jul/100
Virtualization is one of the fastest growing areas in the current I.T. market. Deemed as “Green IT”, it is providing opportunities to improve computer performance and end user productivity as well as cutting costs.
Virtualization at the server level is more established, however, desktop virtualisation is gaining ground. Virtualization’s value comes from its simplicity – the ideal that there will be one desktop operating system, one copy of each application and one instance of each server workload. The most obvious benefit is that the operational costs in the area of technical support will be reduced for companies. However, continuous innovation in desktop virtualization will also start to provide firms with a more flexible and adaptable desktop environment, allowing users access to the workplace from out-of-office locations at any time.
Virtualization and the companies involved in it are getting recognition at industry level for their advances into this type of technology. VMware collected awards for “Green IT Initiative of the Year” as well as “Technology Industry Company of the Year” at this year’s ICT Excellence Awards. At the same time, the Microsoft Ireland Virtualization Campaign won the “Technology Marketing Campaign of the Year”
So how is this affecting job opportunities in the current market? Well first of all, there is a definite increase in the numbers of roles in IT Infrastructure and Support that require Virtualization skills, with familiar job titles such as ‘Technical Support Engineer’ being replaced with ‘Virtualization Engineer’. Secondly individuals have wisely invested time and effort into achieving Virtualization certifications in order to meet the changing needs of current and potential employers. And thirdly, recruiters need to ensure that they understand the virtualization technologies that their clients are expecting in order to identify the most appropriate candidates.
Virtualization is here to stay and keeping up to date is the key to unlocking the potential in this area of IT.
Source : ComputerScope June 2010
O! say can you see – O! save us I.T.
Jul/100
“… Ireland exited the recession during the first quarter of 2010”; I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard the newsreader announce the bulletin on Wednesday morning when I was scrambling to get ready for work. I envisaged skipping to work as my fellow Irishmen and women hooted with joy and punched the air in victory having made it through one of the worst economic years in memory – a little optimistic maybe, but the outlook is definitely looking positive.
Our figures estimated a quarter-on-quarter rise of as much 1pc in Irish economic growth during the first three months of the year, which technically points to the end of the recession. What can we attribute our success over the dreaded recession? One area that has held strong throughout 2010 was Foreign Direct Investments from the US. Despite the odd wobble like Dell and Pfizer, FDI has remained quite strong throughout 2009 for Ireland and IT has proved to be a good source of employment.
HP, McAfee, EA and Blizzard are just some of the companies that have created multiple positions for highly skilled IT professionals last year. Verkom, part of the Premier Group has secured exclusive recruitment contracts with companies such as D&B and BSB who are hiring multiple highly skilled Java developers and IT /other professionals for their new Dublin based hubs. As we globally emerge from recession it is fair to say that we are turning a corner, smiling at the USA and grateful for our highly-skilled IT workforce.
http://www.irishexaminer.ie/ireland/figures-show-recession-ended-at-start-of-year-123837.html
Tablets to become biggest computing category??
Jun/100
Before Computex the worlds second-biggest IT trade fair kicked off earlier this month, the hype about which tablet personal computer would challenge the ipad was in full swing!
Jen-hsun Huang, chief executive of Nvidia, the specialist graphics company that is also a big supplier of chips for tablet PCs kicked things off by making the prediction that within five years “tablets will be the world’s biggest computing category”. Huang said tablets could even surpass netbooks and notebook PCs in terms of volume.
This a very bold claim given that Gartner expects only 12 million tablet-like devices to be sold this year and even the most optimistic of predictions say tablets would only take up 50-60 million of the 700 million PCs sold worldwide by 2014. It was also a dig at Intel’s CEO Paul Otellini who earlier said that tablets would not “eat the netbooks and notebooks lunch”
And Huang isn’t the only one thinking along these lines. Apple CEO Steve Jobs said that personal computers running rival Microsoft’s Windows operating system are in a permanent decline and that only a fraction of current users will still rely on them in the future.
In a rare onstage interview at the D: All Things Digital conference, Mr Jobs compared the fate of the PC to trucks in agrarian America. The dominant vehicle when farming was the way most people earned a living, they were vastly outnumbered by cars when the country became more urbanised.
The same thing will happen with PCs, where “one out of every x” people will continue to use them, he told the Dow Jones event hosts. The shift “is going to make us nervous”, speaking of multiple generations used to the machines.
And with Apple selling over 3 million ipads in the first 80 days of release Mr.Jobs and Huang may very well be proved right
Ireland sees 15% Rise in Professional Job Vacancies in May 2010
Jun/100
- May 2010 saw the highest number of new professional jobs coming on to the market in any one month since October 2008
- The volume of new professional job vacancies in Ireland increased by 15% month-on-month in May 2010
- Compared to the same month a year ago, there was a 33% increase in new job opportunities for professionals
- The number of professionals beginning their job search decreased by 4% in May 2010 compared to April 2010
- However, compared to May 2009, there was a 46% increase in those looking for new roles in May 2010
For more information from our Employment Monitor, please download it at http://www.premier.ie/IrishEmploymentMonitor_May.pdf
Get your game face on!
Jun/100
The gaming industry is a rapidly growing industry that can provide lucrative opportunities. USA and Japan remains the hub for gaming development, but can Irish firms break into this market?
The barrier for entry to this lucrative multibillion dollar multi-platform gaming industry may be too big for Irish firms given the costly nature of the business. If Irish firms have any chance of future success in the industry, clever niches in areas like casual gaming and other supporting fields must be identified.
Being realistic it would cost millions to develop a game like Grand Theft Auto or Call of Duty for the Xbox, PlayStation and Nintendo platforms. However one can look at the Irish Software Company which was formed by a team of Trinity College Dublin graduates, who developed and sold on the off-the-shelf middleware that allowed developers to add online multi-player abilities to their games. Their software was a driving force behind the success of big titled games.
Opportunities in smaller animation based projects could provide a solution in breaking down the barriers to entry in the gaming business. Success in animation and mobile technology prove that there are opportunities in the gaming industry and create a high demands for skilled developers with C++ being one of the languages of choice.
With the development of 3D television, and Television becoming more internet-based and IT focused there will be more opportunities in software and middleware, as well as audio visual. The future for the Irish gaming industry looks positive.
http://gpwiki.org/index.php/DemonWare
The Data Explosion
Jun/100
Data Growth has continued to explode over the last year with a new report claiming a worldwide rise of 62%. With so much information streaming into and out of organizations from call centers, customer Internet forms, point-of-sale contact information, Web-based applications and other customer information systems, data quality and integrity play an important part in every company’s data warehousing efforts.
With an increased focus on Data, we are seeing a huge increase in demand for skilled Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence professionals. Common roles include Data Warehouse Support, Business Objects Consultants, Business Intelligence Developers and Data Warehouse consultants. Many companies are formalizing their Information and Data Management strategies and assessing current systems support of information needs. As a result, people with significant knowledge of Data Warehouse concepts are in high demand along with those who have experience of managing Data Intensive initiatives.
The security industry is also set for a busy time as a result of the spotlight on data and information. It is predicted that by 2020 the amount of files needing higher levels of security would be 50% of the total, up from an estimated 30% this year.
Those in the Cloud Computing business will be happy with these findings as this report also predicts that a third of all data will be residing in the cloud by 2020.
Java????
Jun/100
What is Java? To those outside the IT industry it probably brings to mind a brand of coffee or an exotic island somewhere.
To those of us within the IT world it’s a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun and released in 1995. It is one of the most influential languages of the 20th century and is widely used from application software to web applications.
To those of us who specialise in Recruitment it’s currently the hottest ticket in town!
We have been sourcing Java Developers in Ireland for the past number of years and apart from a few well known “famine patches” have found demand for these skills to be fairly consistent.
Right now, many companies are crying out for good Developers who have a few years commercial experience!!
It is easy to get the impression from the media that there are lots of IT professionals eagerly searching for non existent positions but there are definitely certain skills where the case is in reality the opposite!
So the moral of the story is that if you are currently working in Java and feel like making a move, be brave, the grass can actually be greener on the other side and you won’t know unless you take a look!
Upwardly Mobile!
May/100
Following on from our topic of the iphone v Nexus One, we thought it was worth taking time out to look at the mobile market on the whole.
With mobile phone sales on the increase year on year, clearly this is a profitable industry that has potential to drive forward our recovery.
Recent research conducted by the Gartner technology industry research group noted a 17% increase in mobile phone sales in quarter 1 of this year compared to 2009, with Smartphone models (phones with internet access) leading the way.
As expected, Nokia have topped the pole with 35% of the market, with Samsung trailing closely behind claiming a further 20.6%.
As for Smartphone sales, Nokia again hold the title with over 44.3%, whilst RIM, Apple and Google share the remainder of the market.
But what does this mean for you and me? Well we can already see the inevitable effect of profitable sales in the mobile market with O2 announcing 100 new jobs in the European HQ in Dublin. These new positions will act as a support function to 02’s expanding workforce. And that in my opinion is good news for all!!
Verkom’s 2010 Salary Guide launched today!
May/100
We are delighted to announce the launch of our 2010 Salary Guide! As part of the Premier Group, we continuously monitor market trends.
Since our 2009 Salary Guide the Irish employment market has clearly undergone significant changes and continues to experience very challenging economic conditions. In the midst of such uncertainty we have commissioned an “up to the minute” salary guide which we feel will be of significant benefit to both employers and job seekers alike.
The Premier Group guide is the best and definitive guide to salaries in the Finance, IT, Technical and Office Support sectors.
Find out the latest salaries and hiring trends for 2010 on http://www.verkom.ie/salary-guide-2010
Is Social Media a fad or the biggest shift since the industrial revolution?
May/100
- In 2010 Gen Y outnumbers Baby Boomers, 96% of them have joined a social network.
- Social Media is the #1 activity on the Web.
- 1 out of 8 couples married in the U.S. last year met via social media.
Years to reach million users:
- Radio (38 years)
- TV (13yrs)
- Internet (4 years)
- iPod (3 years)
- Facebook (100 million users in less than 9 months)
- iPod Application Downloads (1 billion in 9 months)
Some Interesting Facts:
- If Facebook were a country, it would be the world’s 4th largest country after China, India & the USA.
- Over 300 million use China’s QZone (QZONE.QQ.COM)
- 2009 US Dept. of Education study in 2009 revealed that on average, online students out performed those receiving face-to-face instruction.
- 1 in 6 higher education students are enrolled in online curriculum.
- 80% of companies are using LinkedIn as their primary tool to find employees.
- The fastest growing segment on Facebook is 55-65 year old females.
- Ashton Kutcher and Ellen DeGeneres have more Twitter followers than the entire population of Ireland, Norway & Panama.
- 80% of Twitter usage is on mobile devices. People update anywhere, anytime. Imagine what that means for bad customer experiences?
- Generation Y & Z consider e-mail passé.
- In 2009, Boston College stopped distributing e-mail addresses to incoming freshmen.
- What happens in Vegas, stays on facebook, twitter, orkut, bebo, flickr, digg, myspace, YouTube, etc.
- YouTube is the 2nd largest search engine in the world.
- YouTube hosts over 100 million videos.
- Wikipedia has over 13 million articles. Studies show it’s more accurate than Encyclopaedia Britannica. 78% of these articles are non-English.
- If you were paid $1 for every time an article was posted on Wikipedia, you would earn $156.23 per hour.
- There are over 200 million blogs. 54% of bloggers post content or tweet daily.
- 25% search results for the World’s Top 20 largest brands are links to user-generated content.
- 34% of bloggers post opinions about products & brands. Do you like what they are saying about your brand?
- People care more about how their social graph ranks products and services than how Google ranks them.
- 78% of consumers trust peer recommendations. Only 14% trust advertisements.
- Only 18% of traditional TV campaigns generate a positive ROI.
- 90% of people that can TiVo ads do.
- Hulu has grown from 63 million total streams to 373 million in April 2009.
- 70% of 18-34 year olds have watched TV on the web. Only 33% have ever viewed a show on DVR/TiVo.
- 25% of Americans in the past month said they watched a short video on their phone.
- 35% of book sales on Amazon are for the Kindle.
- 24 of the 25 largest newspapers are experiencing record declines in circulation.
- We no longer search for the news, the news finds us.
- In the near future, we will no longer search for products and services; they will find us via social media.
- Social Media isn’t a fad; it’s a fundamental shift in the way we communicate.
- More than 1.5 million pieces of content (web links, news stories, blog posts, notes, photos, etc.) are shared on Facebook daily. It’s a people-driven economy.
- Successful companies in social media listen first and sell second.
- Successful companies in social media act more like party planners, aggregators and content providers than traditional advertisers.
- Welcome to the world of socialnomics.
You can find out more at http://www.enoov.com/ytplinternet.html