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Server Sales Dip To 12 Year Low
Server Sales Dip To 12 Year Low
The first quarter saw a number of records broken in the global server market - but for all the wrong reasons.
Customers across all geographies shelved spending plans which forced quarterly server revenues down to the lowest level seen by market watcher IDC since it began analysing the space 12 years ago.
The sector fell 24.5% in value to $9.9bn in the opening three months of 2009, the third consecutive quarter of year-over-year declines.
The recession has permeated all geographic regions and customers of all types, said Matt Eastwood, IDC group vice-president of Enterprise Platforms.
"Full Story: Link"
UK broadband 'notspots' revealed
UK broadband 'notspots' revealed
Around three million homes in the UK have broadband speeds of less than two megabits per second (2Mbps) according to research commissioned by the BBC.
The government has promised to provide all homes in the UK with speeds of at least 2Mbps by 2012.
The research revealed that so-called notspots are not limited to rural communities with many in suburban areas, and even streets in major towns.
The government has pledged a range of technologies to fill the gaps.
"We had assumed that these notspots were in remote parts of the countryside. That may be where the most vocal campaigners are but there is a high incident of them in commuter belts," said Alex Salter, co-founder of broadband website SamKnows.
Full story here
BCS Dismantles Its Ivory Tower
BCS Dismantles Its Ivory Tower
The British Computer Society (BCS) plans to reinvent itself after recognising that it has lost relevance to the IT profession.
The charity is transforming itself to represent a wider group of IT professionals in more countries. It will announce the changes in September.
Alan Pollard, president at the BCS, said the organisation wants to appeal to a wider section of IT industry. "A lot of the research we did identified that we are seen as a technical ivory tower."
The charity, which awards the Charted IT Professional qualification (CITP), will announce major changes to its structure and the qualifications it offers to reflect the needs of today's IT professionals.
More here
Would have posted this in the news section, but I do not have rights.
Management briefing: Careers in IT
Management briefing: Careers in IT
The geeks have triumphed. A generation weaned on iPods, games consoles and Google Earth sees a career in IT alongside those in law and medicine, according to the British Computer Society (BCS), which credits cool Silicon Valley technology companies with overhauling the industry's former nerdy image.
More than one third of young people surveyed by the BCS regard IT as an attractive career. Perceptions of the IT jobs market are holding up well despite the recession: 53 per cent of Britons under 30 with IT qualifications feel confident about employment opportunities in the next year.
Web development, computer games and teaching were the most popular IT careers, while 41 per cent of those surveyed saw IT as an easy industry in which to start a business.
Read the rest of the article here.
-ken
IET and Microsoft sign membership agreement
IET and Microsoft sign membership agreement
The Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET) has signed an agreement with global giant Microsoft to provide its certified professionals with an assured fast-track route to IET membership. The agreement enables Microsofts certified technical community to access IET membership and benefits.
There are more than 70,000 Microsoft Certified Professionals (MCP) in the UK: they are vital to the success of the UKs knowledge-based economy, especially for those organisations seeking to use IT to save money in these difficult economic times, says Gordon Frazer, Managing Director, Microsoft Ltd and Vice President Microsoft EMEA (pictured, right). This partnership will enable the MCP community to access the resources of the IET to help them further their careers and enhance their skills.
Of particular interest to Microsoft certified professionals will be the new ICTTech qualification, launched in...
Linux Certification Not Required
Linux Certification Not Required
The topic of certification surfaces every so often in technical circles--especially when job seekers face tough job competition. The value of such certifications comes into question versus that of years of experience. For experienced technicians and engineers, the opinion is that experience is the most important for landing a job. In the minds of newbies and wannabes, certifications rule. Certifying authorities and vendors, of course, want you to spend the money obtaining the certifications and are ready to cite instances where certification is required for employment. I, myself, was caught up in the certification frenzy back in the early 90s with Novell's now defunct NetWare product. I took the classes, amounting to about $1,500, for the first certification...
Find out why Ken Hess doesn't believe certifications, Linux or otherwise, are required by going to...
IT firms look for relative rookies
IT firms look for relative rookies
IT professionals with more than five years' experience may find it hard to find a new job in the current climate, according to new research from an online career resource.
Beyond.com conducted research into the average experience of people who are looking for a job, as well as the type of employees being looked for by companies.
In the IT sector, the company found that there has been a 54.5 per cent increase during the first quarter of the year in the number of professionals looking for work.
However, the majority of IT jobseekers had five to ten years' experience, but candidates with three to five years' experience were most in demand.
Read the rest of the article here.
-Ken
BCS and IAOP to define professionalism for the IT outsourcing industry
BCS and IAOP to define professionalism for the IT outsourcing industry
IT outsourcing professionals will benefit from a new understanding signed recently between BCS and The International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP). The understanding will allow both organisations to work together to collectively advance the profession and industry of outsourcing and offshoring.
BCS CEO David Clarke explained: 'Outsourcing is a vital part of today's IT industry and we need to ensure that those working within it have the opportunity to enjoy a professional recognition. By working with the IAOP, we can help cross-promote best practice and key issues affecting these practitioners; raising the standards and the understanding of the work across the business world and IT industry as a whole.'
Read the whole article here.
-Ken
Demand for new IT professionals plummets
Demand for new IT professionals plummets
But jobseekers should brush up and excel on skills that are hard to find, says e-skills
Despite the rising tide of redundancies across all sectors, the number of IT staff in employment is at its highest level for more than seven years, according to a report by sector skills council e-skills UK.
But the situation for IT professionals looking for a job is bleak, as demand for new staff continues to fall, according to the report, which claims the number of permanent and contract job ads fell by 24 per cent and 27 per cent respectively over the last two quarters of 2008.
According to e-skills, the largest decline in permanent IT job advertisements was for database-related positions. Other areas have also seen a drop in recruitment, such as systems design (down 33 per cent), internet-based positions (down 29 per cent), PC support (down 27 per cent) and operations (down 27 per cent).
Contractors were also...
Graduates 'overestimating starting salaries'
Graduates 'overestimating starting salaries'
University leavers estimate that they will earn around ten per cent more than is actually likely, a study has suggested.
The research, carried out by a PhD student at the University of Southampton, found that some graduates overestimate their starting salaries by as much as £3,000.
John Jerrim, the author of the report, pointed out that this sum is equal to the current annual tuition fee for most university programmes.
He added: "It is vital that students thoroughly research their future employment prospects when going to university, so they can make informed choices about the subject they study and institution they attend.
Read about this here.
To be honest I'm not surprised by this...
-Ken
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