Promising technologies for future

Last weekend, I visited to one education institution regarding an enquiry about Business Intelligence and Project management for BI projects. While discussing with the Center Head, the topics turned into must required technical skills for next 5 years. We discussed about around 15 technical skills – based on the articles I read with Tech republic, but let me consolidate them and list as 5 major skills – which may create more business and career opportunities at all levels.

Security
Virtualization
Unified Communications
Wireless Technology
Software as a Service

Security – Technologies such as VoIP and Mobile Computing bring new security issues and challenges. Authentication methods are evolving from a password-based model to multifactor models and biometrics are likely to become more important in the future.

Microsoft is heavily investing in the technology with its Windows hypervisor (Viridian), which will run on Windows Server 2008, VMWare offering VMWare Server for free, and Red Hat and SuSE planning
to include Xen hypervisor technology in the next versions of their server products, we can expect the concept of virtual machines to go to a whole new level soon.

The concept of unified communications — the convergence of different communications technologies, such as e-mail, voicemail, text messaging, and fax — looks to be the wave of the future. Users will expect to have access to all their communications from a single interface, such as their Inbox, and from a variety of devices: PCs, laptops, smart phones/PDAs, traditional phones, etc. Convergence makes networks more complex, and IT administrators will need to develop skills for managing converged
networks to compete in tomorrow’s job market.

The Wireless networking concepts and its new standards (ex: 802.11n) are promising faster and more secured wireless technologies. Cell phones, Blackberries, and other ultra-portable devices are becoming
ubiquitous and will likely grow more sophisticated in the future. Employees will expect to get their corporate e-mail on their phones and in some cases (such as Windows Mobile devices), to use terminal services client software to connect these small devices to the company LAN.

SaaS [Software as a Service], involves delivering applications over the Web, rather than installing those applications on individual users’ machines. With SaaS, the IT administrators’ responsibilities will improve
to less focus on deployment and maintenance of applications and more emphasis on broader-based planning, convergence, etc.

Please share your views and comments on the above topics, and suggest me, which other technical areas will get more requirements, and skill improvements – per your experiences.