Who says IT does not matter anymore?

Who says IT does not matter anymore?

Zatni Arbi, Contributor, Jakarta

During the recent OracleWorld event in San Francisco, one
person in the audience asked Larry Ellison, Oracle Chairman and
CEO, this question: "Now that so many of the application
development tasks have been automated, are we database and
application developers supposed to get worried about our jobs?"

It was a legitimate question, of course, especially as changes in
the IT world are so fast and so far-reaching that even IT
professionals sometimes find it hard to keep up.

Responding to the question, Larry aptly reminded the concerned
database developer that upgrading skills and finding new
specialization was the only way to survive.

"It is inevitable that a lot of our jobs get automated over
time, and we just have to move on and acquire new skills and
knowledge." What does this mean? It means that the IT revolution
has obviously not reached the end of its life-cycle. In fact, it
still has a long way to go.

And, if acquiring new knowledge and skills are the order of
the day, what do software developers and other IT professionals
have to learn today to ensure that they will always be able to
earn a living? Obviously, skills in computer security will
provide a vast job market for a long time into the future. It is
not difficult to understand why, as we all know that one of the
major trends today is the digital threats that just escalate
every day: Viruses, worms, ID theft, Denial of Services attacks,
you name it.

The IT world will continue to have to deal with these real
threats, and certainly the world will require specific skills and
knowledge to protect mission-critical IT systems as well as
personal computers from them. It is no difference from a war
against disease (can you say SARS?). So, if you are looking for a
skills set that will guarantee a long term employment, just learn
what the people in the computer security companies such as
McAfee, Network Associates, Symantec, Trend Micro, Aladdin
Knowledge Systems Check Point Software Technologies, TrueSecure,
Internet Security Services (ISS), Computer Associates and so many
others do.

And what are the other trends in IT today? Obviously, wireless
technologies-3G, Wi-Fi and others are some of them. In my recent
trip to San Francisco, I asked for a room with Internet access,
and I was lucky to get one on my second day at my hotel. The good
news was that the Grand Hyatt San Francisco charged me only
US$5.95 (around Rp 48,000) per day.

By the way, before I left I had specifically made sure I had a
new notebook computer with both 802.11b and Ethernet connections
built-in. When in the room, I hooked up to the Internet using the
Ethernet connection. Inside the Moscone Center, I just used the
wireless access provided by Oracle. During the entire trip, I was
able to remain fairly productive although I was away from my home
PC. I could still access all the materials I needed to finish the
jobs I had not managed to finish before I left. Besides, I saved
a lot of money, too, as I was able to communicate with the folks
back home via e-mail instead of making an international phone
call. You know how exorbitant hotel surcharges can be if you make
that kind of telephone call from your room.

Staying connected regardless of where we are has already
become a must, especially with the help of the growing number of
wireless hot spots. As the $5.95 daily Internet access charge
demonstrated, the cost of staying connected is getting more and
more affordable, and the wireless technologies are still
beginning to make it happen.

What about the device that we use to stay connected? New
feature-rich PDA models are emerging as fast as the news of
violence on our TV broadcasts today. However, the PDA and the
cellphones are not the only means to stay connected. Thanks to
their falling prices, notebook PCs are fast replacing desktops.
Some years ago I wrote that I did not expect this to happen. I
would think then that a notebook would only serve as a secondary
machine for every professional. It turned out that the notebooks
now have the same capabilities as their desktop brothers.

Acer, for example, announced that a substantial increase in
its sales of notebook PCs in the last quarter. Other vendors also
report an encouraging growth in the notebook PC sales.

The addition of 802.11x capability in the latest generation of
notebooks has obviously played an important role in driving the
sales figures up. Although none of us would predict that the
notebooks would one day completely replace the desktops, in many
companies, the notebooks are the only computers that the firm
provides for its employees.

The cellphones and the digital camera battle is also heating
up. While most of the cellphone handsets sold in Japan are
already equipped with a CMOS digital cameras, reports have it
that more capable digital cameras are now embedded in high-end
cellphones. One example is the MovaSO505 from Sony-Ericsson.
This phone, which looks more like a digital camera than a
cellphone, is offered by NTT DoCoMo and has been popular among
the Japanese.

By 2005, it is expected that we will see cellphones with
digital cameras capable of capturing five megapixel pictures. It
makes sense, because otherwise we would have to wear pants with
oversized pockets to carry all our gadgets around.

Still in the area of cellphone handsets, the latest trend is
to use fuel cell batteries. Fuel cells are even used in notebook
computers. NEC announced on Sept. 17 that it already built a
prototype of a notebook powered by a fuel cell. Currently, the
notebook can run for five hours per charge. Commercial products
are expected to hit the market next year. In two years, says the
company, we can have a notebook that can run for 40 hours on the
fuel cell batteries. All we have to do to recharge it is to
inject more methanol fuel.

These are just a very small scoop of what is going on in the
IT industry. Now, with so much R&D activity going on in this
industry, it is difficult to understand why one would ever
conclude that IT does not matter anymore.