A recent report by Forrester Research says the hottest corporate IT jobs are focused on enterprise-level management and vendor oversight. But the emergence of software as a service (SaaS) probably wont be a significant factor in how IT organizations are designed for at least five years, says Marc Cecere, Forrester vice president and principal analyst.
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Cecere asked nine colleagues to name the hottest roles within the areas they follow. The report ranks 16 roles according to five "drivers of heat," including the business-and technology-specific knowledge required for each role, the level of risk and impact on the business associated with it, the likelihood the role could be outsourced and its consistency with technology, vendor or industry direction.
SaaS "never comes up as much of a factor with CIOs when talking about the design of IT," says Cecere, although the trend may figure in elsewhere such as through a greater reliance on vendors or focus on processes that influences demand for certain roles.
The hottest roles, according to the report, are policy-and security-oriented positions: information and data architects, along with information security experts.
Business analysts, business architects, enterprise architects and vendor management experts—roles focused on information management, process management and vendor oversight—come next. Then come traditional roles that have been expanded in scope: enterprise applications strategists, IT planners, network architects and enterprise project managers.
Finally, technology-specific roles that are in demand include account managers (who interact with business users on specific projects), desktop virtualization experts, mobile technology experts, service managers, business process analysts and storage directors.
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