IT jobs will grow 22% through 2020, says U.S.

Biennial update says offshoring will limit growth in some occupations, while healthcare IT provides a boost

Computerworld - WASHINGTON -- U.S. officials on Thursday said that offshoring will hurt the growth of U.S. programming jobs in this decade, though expansion of healthcare IT and mobile networks will in turn increase demand for software developers, support technicians and systems analysts.

By 2020, employment in all computer occupations is expected to increase by 22%, but some IT fields will fare better than others, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) biennial update of employment projections.

Comparative growth rates
Projected 10-year growth Compared to other categories
Increase 29% or more Much faster than average
Increase 20% to 28% Faster than average
Increase 10% to 19% About average
Increase 3% to 9% More slowly than average
Decrease 2% to increase 2% Little or no change
Decrease 3% to 9% Decline slowly or moderately
Decrease 10% or more Decline rapidly

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Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Demand for software developers will be the strongest in this period, with increases ranging from 28% to 32%, depending on the type of software development.

The BLS update imagines what IT employment will look like through 2020.

The agency's forecasts, particularly for technology-related jobs, are often controversial because they can't account for rapid market changes and tech disruptions. But its estimates are often cited in various policy debates on issues ranging from education to immigration.

The IT employment growth rate projected by the BLS was characterized as "anemic" by Victor Janulaitis, CEO of Janco Associates, a research firm that analyzes IT wage and employment trends.

"When you consider the overall demand for systems and applications in high-growth markets like China and India, [the BLS projections] mean the U.S. will be doing a diminishing portion of the development and implementation work," said Janulaitis. "If that's the case, the U.S. will no longer be the leader in IT.

"The BLS projections are a bad sign for the U.S. IT graduates from universities. Those numbers do not cover the net growth necessary to give all of the graduates jobs," Janulaitis added.

The outlook varies from occupation to occupation. Here's a look at the BLS projections for various tech jobs.
Database administrators

Demand for database administrators is expected to increase by 31%, with 33,900 jobs being added this decade as enterprises endeavor to cull valuable information from an ever-growing mountain of data.

The field employed 110,800 people in 2010 at a median salary of $73,490.
IT managers

For IT managers, employment is projected to increase by 55,800 jobs, or 18%, to 363,700 jobs by 2020.

The BLS said growth in the healthcare industry and the need for more IT security may spur an increase in the number IT management jobs, but the agency added that "cloud computing may shift some IT services to computer systems design and related services firms, concentrating jobs in that industry."

The median pay for IT managers in 2010 was $115,780.
Job growth forecast
Job title May 2010 employment 2020 jobs forecast Job growth forecast Pct job growth forecast Expected growth rate thru 2020 May 2010 median wage
Software developers, systems software 392,300 519,400 127,100 32% Much faster than average $ 94,180
Database administrators 110,800 144,800 34,000 31% Much faster than average $ 73,490
Network & computer system admins 347,300 443,800 96,500 28% Faster than average $ 69,160
Software developers, applications 520,800 664,500 143,700 28% Faster than average $ 87,790
Computer systems analyst 544,400 664,800 120,400 22% Faster than average $ 77,740
Information Security Analysts, Web Developers, and Computer Network Architects 302,300 367,900 65,600 22% Faster than average $ 75,660
Computer & information systems managers 307,900 363,700 55,800 18% About average $115,780
Computer support specialists 607,100 717,100 110,000 18% About average $ 46,260
Computer programmers 363,100 406,800 43,700 12% Average $ 71,380
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Outlook Handbook

Computer programmers
The IT occupation expected to show the weakest growth is computer programming, which is also the profession most susceptible to offshoring.

The number of people employed as computer programmers will increase by just 12% through the decade, from 363,100 in 2010 to 406,800 by 2020, the BLS projects.

That's less than the expected 14% increase in the number of U.S. jobs across all occupations, IT and otherwise, over the same period, according to the BLS.

Offshoring was blamed for relatively weak growth in demand for computer programmers.

"Since computer programming can be done from anywhere in the world, companies often hire programmers in countries where wages are lower," said the BLS. "This ongoing trend will limit growth for computer programmers in the United States."

The median pay for programmers in 2010 was $71,380.
Help desk, technical support

The healthcare industry's growth and its shift to electronic records will help spur demand for computer support specialists, a job category that includes help desk personnel.

There were 607,000 people employed in computer support in 2010. That figure is expected to grow to 717,000 by 2020, for an 18% increase.

The 2010 median pay for computer support specialists was $46,260.

Technical support workers are also being hurt by a shift of jobs to other countries, though the BLS is a little more optimistic about the outlook for this occupation.

"A recent trend to move jobs to lower-cost regions of the United States may offset some loss of jobs to other countries," the bureau said, referring to the trend of hiring people who handle call center duties largely from their homes.
Systems analysts

The BLS projects that the number of computer systems analysts will grow by 22% through 2020, thanks to the spread of mobile networks and the expanded use of computerized healthcare tools, such as e-prescription systems.

The number of computer system analysts in the U.S. in 2010 was 544,000. That figure is expected to rise 22% to 664,800 by 2020. The median salary of a systems analyst was $77,740 in 2010.
Software developers

The BLS said there were 913,100 software developers in the U.S. 2010; they were earning a median salary of $90,530.

The bureau forecasts that the number of software development jobs will increase by 30%, or 270,900, through 2020.

The fastest rate of growth (32%) will be for system software developers, and the lowest (28%) will be for application developers, the bureau said.
Other IT occupations

In 2010, there were 347,200 network and computer systems administrators employed in the U.S., earning a median wage of $69,160. Employment in these occupations is expected to grow by 96,600 jobs, or 28%, through 2020.

The BLS lumps information security analysts, Web developers and computer network architects in a single category. It said a combined 302,300 people held those positions in 2010 and projected that employment in that category would grow 22% to 367,900 jobs by 2020. The median pay for all workers in that category was $75,660 in 2010.

BLS critics
Ron Hira, an associate professor of public policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology, said the BLS IT forecasts have been wildly wrong in the past.

"Volatile occupations tend to be subject to bad forecasts, and it's clear that computer occupation employment levels are very hard to forecast," said Hira.

"The forecasts are biased toward the most recent history in the occupation," he said.

Hira said he would place more stock in growth projections for a predictable profession. Citing primary school teachers as an example, he pointed out that the BLS can estimate the number of births during the decade and factor in teacher-student ratios to reach an estimate of employment growth.

The BLS has "no methodology to estimate technological disruptions that can increase demand for computer occupations," said Hira, citing the rapid increases in the use of the Internet and ERP systems as examples of IT disruptions.

David Foote, CEO of Foote Partners, an IT labor market research firm, scoffed at the BLS's projections and said they extended too far out into the future to be reliable.

In light of "current market volatility and uncertainty which is unprecedented," Foote said that anyone who makes a 10-year IT employment projection "is kidding themselves."

The projections don't take into account the rate of technological change, he said.

Foote said the BLS only identifies a "small group" of IT jobs and doesn't track the new kinds of technology jobs that combine business and IT experience to create hybrid professions. Much of that is being driven by the demands to find useful ways to apply use so-called big data in a business.

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Microsoft Apologizes After Botched Windows Phone Challenge

Microsoft is apologizing after refusing to reward a tech writer who "smoked" a Windows Phone using an Android handset.

Microsoft is apologizing for a Windows Phone marketing campaign gone wrong, after a tech writer "smoked" a Windows Phone using an Android handset.

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OOPS: Dumbest tech marketing stunts of all time
In its retail stores, Microsoft has been running a "Smoked by Windows Phone" campaign, in which participants are challenged to use their existing smartphones to try to beat Windows Phone in basic tasks. For example, users are asked to send text messages to their spouses, look up the weather, or find highly-rated local restaurants.

In most stores, Microsoft was offering $100 to users who could beat Windows Phone. But Microsoft upped the stakes at its Santa Clara location by offering a special edition laptop valued at over $1,000. That's where Skatter Tech's Sahas Katta decided to take up Microsoft's challenge.

Katta's task was to bring up the weather in two different cities. Fortunately, Katta's Samsung Galaxy Nexus already had a pair of weather widgets on the home screen, one for San Jose, Calif., and another for Berkeley, Calif. He had also set the phone to bypass the lock screen when pressing the power button--a built-in option for Android phones running version 2.3 and higher.

When the challenge began, all Katta had to do was tap the power button. Although a store associate with a Windows Phone was close behind, with two weather Live Tiles on the start screen, the Galaxy Nexus' instant unlock gave Katta the edge.

The Microsoft Store staff didn't see it this way, and claimed that Katta had actually lost. After several employees failed to explain why, another employee stepped in and claimed that Katta's phone didn't win because its two weather locations were in the same state.

"I calmly and politely tried pointing out that I was absolutely never told about having to show off two different states, but at this point I realized there was no point in even attempting to argue since the Microsoft Store employees clearly had no intention of even potentially discussing the possibility of considering me the winner," Katta wrote.

The story attracted lots of attention in the tech world, getting picked up on the news aggregation site Techmeme. On Monday, Microsoft's Senior Manager (and self-proclaimed Microsoft Evangelist) Ben Rudolph wrote on Twitter that he wanted to make things right, and promised Katta a laptop, a phone, and an apology.

The Verge also wrote a follow-up story showing how Microsoft instructed store employees to avoid certain challenges against specific phones. For instance, HTC's Status has a "pocket-to-picture-to-post feature and a camera that switches on even faster than Windows Phone," according to a store guide, so employees were instructed not to challenge Status users to take a picture and upload it to Facebook.

It should be no surprise that Microsoft was stacking the odds in its favor. "Smoked by Windows Phone" is a marketing campaign, not an honest assessment of one platform's advantages against the competition. But as long as Microsoft was coaching store employees on how not to get beaten, it could have also taught them how to gracefully accept defeat.

Then again, one store's snafu arguably led to more exposure for the campaign than it ever would have received otherwise.

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70-595 Q&A / Study Guide / Testing Engine

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---

QUESTION 1
You are employed as a developer at Certkingdom.com. Certkingdom.com makes use of BizTalk Server 2010 in
their environment.
You have designed a BizTalk Server 2010 messaging solution for processing XML messages. You
then configured the solution to makes use of a solitary Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) activity
and BAM tracking profile to obtain content values from a message.
When a message is received, a portion of the values are bound to a receive port. When a
message is sent, the rest of the values are bound to a send port.
You have been instructed to make sure that a single record that includes all content values is
created for each message.
Which of the following actions should you take?

A. You should consider making use of the BizTalk Tracking Profile Utility (bttdeploy.exe) to
redeploy the tracking profile used in this solution.
B. You should consider linking a complete value to ActivityID field.
C. You should consider adding a relationship to the BAM tracking profile.
D. You should consider configuring the solution to make use of another Business Activity
Monitoring (BAM) activity.

Answer: C

Explanation:

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QUESTION 2
You are employed as a developer at Certkingdom.com. You are currently in the process of designing a
BizTalk Server 2010 orchestration for Certkingdom.com’s environment.
You have already created and saved a policy, named CertkingdomEmployeeBonus, to compute an
employee’s bonus based on year-to-date sales via the Business Rule Composer. You have also
included a Call Rules shape in the new BizTalk Server 2010 orchestration.
When you access the BizTalk Orchestration Designer, you are unable to find CertkingdomEmployeeBonus
in the menu of accessible policies.
It is imperative that CertkingdomEmployeeBonus is made available.
Which of the following actions should you take?

A. You should consider publish CertkingdomEmployeeBonus from the BizTalk Orchestration Designer.
B. You should consider publish CertkingdomEmployeeBonus from the Business Rules Composer.
C. You should consider creating and publishing a vocabulary containing a definition that
references the XML schema used to evaluate CertkingdomEmployeeBonus from the Business Rules Composer.
D. You should consider creating and publishing a vocabulary containing a definition that
references the XML schema used to evaluate CertkingdomEmployeeBonus from the BizTalk Orchestration Designer.

Answer: B
Reference:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa995582(v=BTS.70).aspx

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QUESTION 3
You are employed as an administrator at Certkingdom.com. Certkingdom.com is a shipping company that uses
radio frequency identification (RFID) readers with a server shipping management system built on
BizTalk Server 2010 to track shipped containers.
Subsequent to defining a custom tag event, named ContainerArrivalEvent, you include the
SqlServerSink component to the RFID process using the RFID manager.
You are required to make sure that only the custom tag event is logged.
Which of the following actions should you take?

A. You should make use of the Inline XSLT script type.
B. You should make use of the fully qualified assembly name for the EventType property.
C. You should make use of the Inline C# script type.
D. You should make use of the Generic EventType property.

Answer: D
Reference:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd352454(v=BTS.70).aspx

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QUESTION 4
You are employed as an administrator at Certkingdom.com. Certkingdom.com has a BizTalk Server 2010
environment.
Certkingdom.com has three trading partners to which EDI purchase orders are regularly sent. Certkingdom.com’s
trading partners make use of email, instead of through response messages, to confirm purchase
order acknowledgements. Furthermore, Certkingdom.com’s three trading partners employ identical
versions of the purchase order message. The only difference is that the product types for each
trading partner are defined by custom codes, which are not included in the standard BizTalk
purchase order schemas.
You have been instructed to make sure that a purchase order schema is used for each trading
partner when sending purchase orders. Each purchase order schema should contain the required
custom product type codes for that particular trading partner.
Which two of the following actions should you take? (

A. You should consider defining a local host setting for each of the three trading partners via the
transaction set settings for the party.
B. You should consider defining an envelope for each of the three trading partners via the
transaction set settings for the party.
C. You should consider making use of the default namespace defined by BizTalk for EDI
messages.
D. You should consider defining a custom namespace for each BizTalk schema.

Answer: B,C
Reference:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff629750(v=BTS.70).aspx

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QUESTION 5
You work as a BizTalk Server 2010 administrator at Certkingdom.com. Certkingdom.com makes use of a BizTalk
Server 2010 orchestration that calls a Business Rules Engine policy.
You have previously configured the policy to assess test scores for passes or fails. You then
deployed The BizTalk solution, as well as the policy.
When Certkingdom.com decides to increase the value of a passing score, you are instructed to make the
necessary changes to the policy so that the adjusted rule parameter is displayed.
Which of the following actions should you take? (Choose all that apply.)

A. You should create a new version of the policy in the Business Rules Composer
B. You should create a different policy with a new name that includes the changed parameter in
the Business Rules Composer.
C. You should create a new vocabulary in the Business Rules Composer.
D. You should create a new version of the policy in the Business Rules Composer
E. Add the new parameter to this vocabulary
F. You should edit this version to reflect the changed parameter.
G. You should deploy the new version.
H. You should publish the new version.
I. You should publish the vocabulary.
J. You should deploy the new policy.

Answer: C,E,I
Reference:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa560288(v=BTS.70).aspx

---

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Chrome browser updated again. Not that there's anything wrong with that

Google's Chrome browser was updated yesterday to version 17.0.963.78 on Windows, Macs and Linux. This latest update is to Chrome only, it does not include an updated copy of Flash, which remains at version 11.1.102.63 on Windows and Linux and 11.1.102.64 on OS X.

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According to Google, yesterdays update fixed a single security problem and "issues with Flash games and videos".

This Chrome refresh came on the heels of the prior update, version 17.0.963.66 which was issued just two days earlier.

And that update was an emergency fix for version 17.0.963.65 that had been released just two days before.

When Google detected a problem with version 17.0.963.65, they halted its distribution. Their delay in telling anyone about this, is what prompted my previous blog about being stuck on version 17.0.963.56.

The great thing about this stream of updates is that Chrome users didn't need to know or care, because Chrome does such a great job of silently updating itself.

I don't necessarily want all of my software constantly and silently self-updating, but for a web browser I think it is the right approach.

That Chrome includes Flash in its self-updating umbrella, is icing on the cake.

A Windows user with Flash running inside both Firefox and Internet Explorer reminds me of the mythological figure Sisyphus, constantly pushing that boulder uphill. Personally, I've got better things to do than manually update Flash time and time again. When I need Flash, I use Chrome.

A fan of another browser may claim that Chrome is overly buggy. Having been a developer, I expect bugs.

The Watergate scandal showed that, in politics, it's not the crime, it's the cover-up. In software, it's not the bugs, its how you deal with them.

Some companies deny their bugs or take forever to fix them. Not Google. This steady stream of Chrome releases shows they are on the job, paying attention and fixing things quickly.

Very quickly. The security problem that was fixed yesterday in Chrome version 17.0.963.78 came to Google's attention less than 24 hours earlier.

I am also encouraged by reports that Google paid $60,000 for the details of the security flaw. This can only encourage more bug reports in the future.

I was impacted by the just-fixed Flash problem.

A remotely controlled Windows 7 computer seemed to go mute when viewed from an XP machine on the same LAN. I often use Flash on assorted web pages to play audio, and the remote control software dutifully sends the audio from the remote Windows 7 machine to the computer in front of me.

But, at some point this broke. After some tinkering, the problem was narrowed down to Flash based audio running in Chrome. Audio from other sources worked fine. Interestingly, when Chrome was configured to use Firefox's copy of Flash rather than its own embedded copy, the audio worked fine.

I spent a non-trivial amount of time debugging this. Just hours after reporting the gory details of the problem, there was a new version of Chrome with a fix. It makes an impression.

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Symantec to acquire Nukona to assist in BYOD strategy

Deal with privately held mobile application management company to be completed in April

Symantec today announced it has reached an agreement to acquire privately held Nukona, a maker of mobile application management software, for an undisclosed price.

Symantec indicated the acquisition of Mountain View-based Nukona, expected to be concluded in April, is intended to further its strategy in managing and securing Apple iOS, Google Android and HTML5 apps, especially when the smartphone or tablet is owned by the employee but permitted for business use by the employer.

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ANALYSIS: Cloud-based single-sign-on, a business perk for customers?
This "bring your own device" (BYOD) phenomenon, as it's called, is becoming increasingly prevalent in the enterprise and forcing IT managers to look to new management approaches.

Nukona's mobile management software includes an "enterprise apps store" for app distribution and a "policy manager" that can wrap apps in a management layer that allows IT to apply security policies for purposes such as authentication, enforcing encryption or setting restrictions.

C.J. Desai, Symantec's senior vice president, endpoint and mobility group, said the Nukona acquisition "will help organizations protect and isolate corporate data and applications across both corporate-owned and personally owned devices."

Earlier this month, Symantec also acquired Odyssey Software, a provider of mobile device management software as a foundation to enroll and manage all necessary device settings across a broad range of platforms.

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Cisco incubating software-defined network startup?

Insiemi being pitched by 3 star Cisco engineers who also worked on SAN, Nexus switches

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Cisco is reportedly considering incubating an internal startup chartered to develop the company's software-defined networking product line.

According to The New York Times, Insiemi is the name of the startup, which would ostensibly be spun in to Cisco once its product is finished. The Times said Cisco is negotiating with three of its top engineers on whether to fund and commence the startup's operations.

SDN WITH A CISCO PEDIGREE: Startup founded by ex-Cisco execs pushes software-defined networking

Cisco would not comment on the Times story.

Cisco has done this with two other internal startups -- Andiamo, which made the company's SAN switches; and Nuova, which developed Cisco's Nexus data center switches. In all three cases, the same three Cisco engineers are involved in the startup company formation, operation and product strategy and development: Mario Mazzola, Prem Jain and Luca Cafiero.

The three have deep roots in Cisco's Ethernet switching business, dating back to 1993. Andiamo was acquired by Cisco in 2002, with the purchase price based on SAN switch sales -- potentially up to $2.5 billion, Cisco said at the time. Nuova was acquired in 2008 for between $70 million and $678 million, also dependent on product sales.

But the startup spin-in strategy has also strained relations between Cisco and its internal engineering teams who were not selected to join the startup and then saw their own teams recruited away. The practice led to the departures of these engineers who then started up their own companies to compete with Cisco, sources said.

Sources say Insiemi has already recruited Tom Edsall, a Cisco Fellow and a lead ASIC architect of the company's Nexus and MDS switching lines (from the Nuova and Andiamo spin-ins); and Ronak Desai, the architect of Cisco's NX-OS FabricPath and Virtual Device Context software, and of the MDS SAN switch operating system. The startup may also have recruited Michael Smith, a distinguished engineer who worked on Cisco's Nexus 1000v virtual switch, sources say.

Insiemi has also been granted full source code licenses to Cisco's NX-OS data center network operating system, the sources say. They also say Insiemi headquarters have been established for now in Cafiero's Palo Alto home.

Insiemi would develop Cisco's software-defined networking product line, according to The New York Times. Software-defined networking (SDN) allows an external controller to act as the brains of the switching and/or routing infrastructure, enabling software programmability and configurability without manual intervention on each and every network element.

The Nexus 1000v virtual switch would likely be the first "touch point" for the Cisco SDN controller, sources say.

SDNs are said to be a way to abstract the physical network from the logic with which to operate it, and to enable easier modification or feature extension. OpenFlow is supported by many in the industry as an API and protocol to enable SDNs.

Cisco has been tight-lipped on its OpenFlow/SDN strategy. SDNs are said to be a threat to Cisco's hardware dominance and profits in that it opens up proprietary or customized hardware to manipulation by an external element. Cisco has said it plans to add OpenFlow to its Nexus switches, but beyond that, the company is not elaborating on its strategy to either embrace or combat SDNs.

In the previous internal startup ventures, Andiamo and Nuova both developed switches featuring custom Cisco ASICs with software very tightly coupled with these ASICs. Indeed, this continues to be Cisco's strategy, even with SDNs, Cisco CEO John Chambers recently noted in a roundtable with trade reporters.

So it's expected that Insiemi would develop an SDN controller, and perhaps other switching products, that tightly couple Cisco ASICs to the software control of associated switches. Whether OpenFlow is involved in the development -- or a Cisco proprietary SDN API and protocol -- is unclear at this point.

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Microsoft's MAPP reportedly hacked, RDP exploits coming sooner than expected

Microsoft's early patch information distribution system appears to have been hacked, giving attackers a jumpstart at building a worm.

When Microsoft's Patch Tuesday release earlier this week revealed a code execution vulnerability for Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), we knew it wasn’t a good sign. We didn’t expect the situation to get this dangerous so quickly, however, and neither did Microsoft.

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RELATED: Microsoft incites madness with March's Patch Tuesday release

Details continue to surface surrounding the RDP exploit, including allegations that the Microsoft Active Protections Program (MAPP), which provides security vendors patch information ahead of its actual release, has been compromised. According to ZDNet blogger Ryan Naraine, several sources claim that the MAPP was breached by hackers in China. Among those making the accusations is security researcher Luigi Auriemma, whom Microsoft credited with discovering the RDP vulnerability in the first place.

RELATED: Don't Wait on This Patch, Microsoft says

One undisclosed security researcher who spoke to Naraine says he “can say with 100% certainty that MAPP information got into the wrong hands,” a claim that Auriemma supported “with no doubt whatsoever,” Narraine wrote.

Auriemma, in a separate statement emailed to SC Magazine, offers even scarier information for those that are late in making the patch. Two early exploits have been proven to cause the infamous blue screen of death on targeted Windows XP and Server 2003 devices, Auriemma told SC Magazine.

Symantec has since confirmed reports of a Proof of Concept (PoC) for a denial of service attack through the exploit Microsoft tried to patch on Tuesday.

Hackers with access to the MAPP would be able to build and distribute attacks more quickly than their potential targets could protect themselves. Even though Microsoft, and every security researcher I spoke to, urged those running RDP to deploy the patch immediately, “if not sooner,” Microsoft researchers had initially warned in a company blog post that they “anticipate that an exploit for code execution will be developed in the next 30 days.”

Now, some may be wishing for that 30 days.

“The threat level with MS12 -020 is rising rapidly,” Lamar Bailey, director of security research and development for nCircle, says. “Over the weekend attackers will be adding malicious payloads to the exploit code Symantec found and we’ll see that in the wild by Monday, if not sooner. Within a week we’ll see multiple malicious payloads, and it will definitely become a worm.”

Meanwhile, hackers are wasting little time trying to establish a more severe threat, with this financially incentivized request for “a working exploit for CVE-2012-0002 (the new RDP hole) as a Metasploit module” posted on web developer project networking site Gun.io.

If Microsoft’s emphasis of the exploit earlier in the week didn’t grab the attention of enterprise IT, these reports will, especially with the risk level rising as quickly as it is, Bailey says. And it could make for a long St. Patrick's Day weekend.

“Patch it now or pay later,” Bailey says. “This should be at the top of every enterprise security team’s list every day until their entire network is completely patched.”