Upskill yourself with these new technologies and stay relevant

Since the time of the IT boom 2 decades ago, much has evolved over the years, more so in the last few years and continues to change by the day. Newer technologies are driving today’s digital age. This calls for acquiring new skills and staying relevant for the changing times. Cloud computing, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, DevOps, Full Stack Development are but just a few of the new age technologies which are here to stay and which will shape the future.    

Let us deep-dive into some of these new age technologies and what it takes to acquire these skills.

Cloud Technologies:

Beginning as an alternative to the soaring IT infrastructure cost, Cloud Computing, has, within a short span, become the most defining trend now. Cloud computing is no longer a good-to- have option, but a MUST have one. With increasing adoption of Cloud computing, opportunities in the job market are also opening up. Job profiles in cloud computing range from Cloud Architect, Cloud Software Engineer and Cloud Infrastructure Engineer are predicted to be in great demand. On a similar note, Cloud DevOps, Cloud Security, Network optimization for Cloud, will also play a significant role in cloud computing with a huge demand in the jobs space for these job profiles.

Typically, jobs in cloud computing can be categories into three buckets.

1. Those who build the cloud;

2. Those who build applications using the cloud;

3. Those who make sure that the cloud and the applications on the cloud are secure with a 100% uptime.

In the first category, those who build the cloud infrastructure, work on tuning operating systems, like algorithms using Python, Java, Go, C++…to name a few. Those working in the second category, build applications using the cloud.

They are experts at NodeJS, Java, React, Kotlin or Swift and they have spent several hundred hours in learning the tips and tricks of leveraging the powerful offerings of the Cloud. Finally, are those job roles which requires maintaining the cloud and its applications and ensuring it is fully functional all the time.

Teams here are responsible for fine tuning the network architecture, keep computer systems and network devices protected against attacks and provide security services to protect highly sensitive internal and client data. Cloud DevOps engineers help to optimize the build-test-deploy-monitor cycle and ensure that the Cloud world has 100% uptime. These and many other skilled engineers belong to the last category

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning:

AI/ML is fast shaping the world and is becoming a part of our daily lives. What exactly is Machine Learning? As the term suggests, Machine learning is an application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) that provide systems, the ability to automatically learn and improve from experience without being explicitly programmed. Machine learning focuses on the development of computer programs that can access data and use it to learn for themselves. No longer can CIOs decide “if” they should use ML, but instead where and how to apply it. From a technology stand point, CIOs should experiment with the various ML approaches and choose from a variety of alternatives such as TensorFlow vs PyTorch vs Apache Spark etc. CIOs should forge partnerships with AWS or Azure or GCP to effectively utilize the ML capabilities of these cloud providers.

DevOps:

In simple terms, DevOps is the practice of operations and development engineers participating together in the entire lifecycle from the design to the development to production support. Organizations that embrace DevOps culture along with the right processes and tools respond faster to customer needs and help their customers achieve their business goals by reducing time to market; adapting to market demands and Delivering Reliable Product. The rapid adoption of Cloud is touted to be the reason for the rising popularity of DevOps. Security testing and assurance will become integral to DevOps culture and lead the way in ensuring each release is secure against malicious attacks.

Full Stack Developer

This concept is not new in this industry. It has an interesting antiquity that goes back to the earliest days of programming. From the beginning of software development, when there was no web or mobile programming, full stack development has been present. Over a period of time, people got into silos of back-end only or front-end only programming and become overspecialized. This has come a full cicrlce and programmers are expected to handle end-to-end development.

Today’s cloud & web applications require people to learn UI programming (front-end) and server-side programming (back-end) and also work on the database layer.

When an individual studies both & enter the job market, she is called a Full Stack Developer. Apart from that, tools and technologies that simplified the integration of client-side and server-side programming had entered the industry. This helped the development of full-stack development. Today, full-stack developers are in high demand. Importantly, a full stack developer works on multiple technologies and tools vis-à-vis than regular programmer.

The future of full-stack development looks promising because of the secure growth in demand of these experts. Having a full-stack development in enterprises has the following benefits:

a. Small Crew

With a full stack developer in the team, the company can keep the team small which involve less communications and fewer resources within the team. Of course the large team costs much more than small team.

b. Adaptability

A full stack developer has the ability to adapt to changing scenarios. Web development is a challenging task. A lot of factors are at play while developing a new product and the requirements could change intermittently. You may find a new framework which can enhance productivity considerably. A full-stack developer is a preferred choice in such scenarios because of their ability to adapt to these changes quickly. Even on the technology front too. They can adapt to new technologies, quickly. Whether it’s taking on a new accountability or making tweaks to the final product, full-stack developers can grip it all.

 Conclusion:

There is no doubt the IT world is offering newer opportunity for upskilling. Needless to say, strong fundamentals of programming and data structures, the ability to write bug free codes, attention to detail, hard-working and strong work ethics are a MUST and should go hand-in-hand.

Pratap V Simha, Cofounder and CTO of TechChefs