With a gloomy economic outlook leaving businesses with the 'certainty of uncertainty', IT professionals who take an innovative approach to maximising the value of their systems can become a great asset. According to Computing magazine, a tough financial climate over the next 12 months will lead to tighter control over spending and fewer leasing agreements for major hardware and software purchases. With no "silver bullet" solution to the problem of restricted financing, those working in computing and IT must work to increase the value of their existing system while closing the gap between themselves and the rest of the business. Adopting available technologies will be an important element of maximising value, the magazine said, so graduates should ensure they are familiar with systems that could bring "significant" cost savings to their firms, such as virtualization and mobile working. Those working in hosting and software-as-a-service development will also play an important role as more companies look to adopt these "pay-as-you-go" systems. According to a recent survey by Jobfox, 5 of the top 25 "recession proof" jobs are in IT. They are software design and development, networking and system administration, database administration, testing and quality assurance and technology executive.  |