These are free on-line Cloud computing training/Webinars that provide a good overview of Cloud Technologies.

Frist is the Microsoft Virtual Academy called MVA. This site is a collection of Microsoft training at the 100 and 200 levels, it does give you a good overview of Microsoft’s offerings in the Cloud space.  Also you will need to have a Hotmail or Live mail account to access this free training.

www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com

“Microsoft Virtual Academy – MVA is a fully cloud-based learning experience focusing on Microsoft Cloud Technologies. You can access a variety of training content online and become one of the renowned experts in the IT Pro community around the world. MVA provides its users with a virtual university experience: the student can select a track and study the material and then do the self-assessment. By doing so, he will collect points that will promote him to a Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum Level. Students on MVA can get access to all the information, statistics and advancements of their training career, allowing them to maintain a long-term relationship with Microsoft. Learning through MVA is free of charge, and you can study the contents at any time and at your own pace.”

Secondly, BrightTalk is a series of Wedinars put on by various companies and  industry experts on Cloud computing and other business related topics.

BrightTALK

“Webinars and video empower you to engage customers with new ideas. BrightTALK provides a platform for you to speak directly with your target community in a rich and visual way. BrightTALK makes it easy to create conversations, connect and develop new relationships, hear feedback, answer questions and become an important voice to the people who follow you.”

www.brighttalk.com/webcasts?q=cloud+computing

Cloud computing is one of five trends, along with mobility, security, social media and big data. And Davin Juusola, vice-president of research and development with London, Ont.-based Info-Tech, said these trends will mean major changes for IT departments and IT staffing.

“Today, IT departments are focused primarily on applications and infrastructure, and less so on vendor management and business analysts,” said Juusola. “You need to transform to put more emphasis on business analysts and vendor management.”

As companies move more workload into the cloud, infrastructure and application management will be less important; that will be the responsibility of the cloud provider. But trends in big data, for example, will require skills in other areas.

“You’ll need an army of smart business analysts to dig out from under all that data, and you’ll need to manage your vendors like you manage your staff today,” said Juusola, making sure your service providers are on top of their responsibilities to the business. “If you get out in front of this perfect storm it will be a rewarding experience for you and your organization.”

The trends

Rob Dreyer (pictured), vice-president of research with Info-Tech, said it can be hard to get to the critical mass necessary to achieve real infrastructure savings by moving to the cloud. Most organizations dip their toes into the cloud strategically, moving certain processes or functions, but that’s often not enough to allow them to start retiring on-premise servers. Companies shouldn’t think of cost-savings as a key driver for moving to the cloud anyway, said Dreyer.

“Cloud offers a low cost of entry when provisioning new services, but that’s not the same as low total cost of ownership (TCO),” said Dreyer. “For the first two years a cloud solution can offer better economic value than trying to build it yourself, but over time it (evens out).”

Moving to the cloud isn’t really about cost, said Juusola. It’s about capabilities such as greater speed to market and flexibility as a business and an IT organization. He recommends starting with infrastructure as a service or platform as a service to start, as these tend to be less disruptive to the business.

The consumerization and bring-your-own-device trends play into mobility, and Juusola said burying your head in the sand on this front isn’t an option. Users will be using personal devices anyway, and ignoring the situation will be 24 per cent more costly than offering even limited support, according to Info-Tech’s research.

“People with titles that are beyond the standards are going to come to you for support, so you should really get out in front of it,” said Juusola.

Computer engineers are expected to have limited growth in this province, with few job opportunities, but programming knowledge of Java, J2EE, .NET languages and relational databases are forecasted to be in high demand. With the popularity of interactive media, web and multimedia developers are also considered to be have good future prospects.

Computer and network operators and web technicians are perceived to have good prospects through to 2015. Demand for these occupations is expected to be driven by expanding networks, including wireless and broadband, and the need to manage and upgrade complex information systems, with prospects above average for the long term.

There is projected to be an increased demand for computer security specialists, with government and businesses investing in security of their network for attacks and theft of data systems. With an increasing shift toward business being conducted online and electronically, the need for IT security professionals becomes emphasised.

User support technicians are expected to have good-average prospects in the coming years. More sophisticated software applications for both private and commercial use will demand technical and troubleshooting support. Among the strongest areas of growth will be e-commerce and internet security

Source: Labour Market Information

Source: Source: Manpower Employment Outlook
In a survey, the Hudson Report, of employers in various industry segments, it was found that across all sectors, 65 percent expect to hire more staff in the coming months. 79 percent of respondents in Banking and Finance expect more hiring, whilst in IT, 71 percent believed more workers will be taken on. Manufacturing and Industrial sector saw stable positive response with 67 percent believing hiring will increase. Consumer and Media/PR/Advertising saw only 55 and 34 percent of respondents, respectively, suggest hiring will increase in those sectors.
Source: Hudson Report, China

Singapore
The highest growth in employment for Singapore is expected to be in Service sector, with 30 percent outlook. Transportation and utilities is projected to be close at 27 percent, with Public Administration and Education at 24 percent, and Mining and construction and 23 percent.

Source: Manpower Employment Outlook
Singapore is forecasted to experience the highest projections since 2001. 67 percent of respondents from Banking and Financial Services are intent on hiring more staff, according to the Hudson Report. In IT, 64 percent of those that responded project greater hiring, with significant investments being made in regional Singaporean IT hubs. In Health and Life Sciences, half the respondents expect recruiting to pick up, whilst 48 percent of Manufacturing and Industrial sector employees expect more hiring. Consumer and Media/PR saw less confidence, with 38 and 27 percent, respectively, forecasting more jobs.
Source: Hudson Report, Singapore

Hong Kong
In Hong Kong, the Mining and Construction sector is projected to see a 24 percent increase, whilst the outlook for Services predicts 21 percent more jobs. Finance, Insurance and Real Estate is expected to see gains of 16 percent, with Wholesale and retail trade employment projected to rise 11 percent. Transportation and utilities have less optimistic prospects, with the flat expectation of 1 percent increase.

Source: Manpower Employment Outlook
The Hudson Report results show that hiring expectations in Hong Kong are the highest in Asia, and significantly up from the previous quarter. The highest projections are for Media/PR/Advertising, with 86 percent of employer respondents expecting to hire more workers. Similarly, 80 percent of respondents in the legal sector forecast more hires, and 77 percent of respondents in Banking and Financial services projecting increased hiring. The percentage of respondents expecting more hires was 64 in IT, 61 in Manufacturing, and the lowest in Consumer sector with 42.
Source: Hudson Report, Hong Kong

As many Canadians approach the retiring age, a new emphasis is placed on what the size and work trends of different generations means for the economy. Particularly with a large, dominant Baby Boomer population either beginning retirement or preparing for it, certain questions about the generational imbalances arise.

Because mandatory retirement has been prohibited in most provinces, except for bona fide non-discriminatory purposes, older people are postponing retirement beyond 65 years.  The speculated shortage of workers may, thus, be delayed a few years, but poses challenges nevertheless.

Source: PBO

One key indicator of this oncoming phenomenon is the old age dependency ratio, which denotes the number of working age people per retiree in the population. Although there are currently about 5 persons aged 15-64 per retiree, this number is expected to fall to about 2 per retiree by 2051. This trend is attributed in part to the boomer retirement and the slowed birth rate resulting in fewer young people.

Source: Statistics Canada

When the majority of healthcare and social expenditure is directed towards the older population, the impact this would have on a significantly smaller workforce that follows them becomes obvious. The burden of taxes and contraction of benefits will be borne mostly by the two generations following the Boomers— Gen X, the members of which prepare to take over from the boomers, and Gen Y, most of which are entering the workforce or in early stages of their careers.

Source: PBO

This is made worse by projections of labour force participation rates in the future. Statistics Canada asserts that the portion of working age people in the population, as well as their participation rate in the labour force, will eventually begin to decline this decade.

Source: StatCan

Source: PBO

As the proportion of seniors to the working age population grows substantially, retirements are expected to increase at a faster pace than jobs. Therefore, slower employment growth, declining participation and a greater non-working population means that an intriguing horizon looms before us.

With such challenges ahead, economists believe that the key to overcoming these circumstances will be high productivity, as population and participation growth is not forecasted to be sufficient in handling the demands of the boomer retirement.

Source:
HRSDC

With the variety of programming languages around today, the whole field seems so difficult to grasp. However, in order to ensure that you find the right candidate to meet the organization’s needs, some understanding of these languages is a must.

Below is a list of commonly used languages in the IT industry and related fields:

1. C
   Following from the ‘B’ Language, C was designed with many command similarities to machine instructions, and thus was used for many applications that utilized assembly languages. However, its numerous compilers and machine-independent design means that it is a structured, high-level language, used extensively for system and application software.
2. C++
   Developed as an extension of the previous dominant C Language, C++ built upon all the strong points of C, whilst ushering in the paradigm of object-oriented programming.  It remains one of the most widely used and supported languages today, especially for systems and embedded software, video games, and client and commercial applications.
3. Java
   Java, defined by Sun Microsystems, is a high level language popular for portable applications. Java programs are mostly compiled to run on virtual run time environments, which exist for almost all operating systems. Despite being partially derived from C and C++, Java has less low level architecture, and thus considered more “straight forward” than C/C++. The large class libraries and broad implementation means it is amongst the most popular high-level programming languages, with diverse applications from web servers and browsers to portable phones.
4. C#
   Microsoft, originally wanting to restrict certain Java application tools to Windows, created C# to run only on their OS. C# allows the use of constructs commonly found in languages such as C++, Python and Ruby.  C# is considered to be faster than Java’s run-time, but does not have as large a user-base or libraries, partly due to the lack of other system compatibility.
5. PHP
   As an increasingly popular scripting language amongst web developers, PHP was originally intended to create dynamic, interactive web pages. Knowledge of PHP is generally sought after, and its uses include server-side scripting, command-line programming and GUI applications.

6. Visual Basic

Microsoft’s windows-only Visual Basic language was derived from BASIC and is one of the easier languages to learn. It is an event-driven programming language, allowing users to create applications in the graphical and component-based development environment.

Some programs and technical software used include:

Accounting

• QuickBooks Pro, Intuit Inc.
• Simply Accounting, ACCPAC International Inc.
• Peachtree Complete, Sage Software SB, Inc.
• NetSuite Small Business, NetSuite Inc.

Desktop Publishing & Graphic Design

• PagePlus, Serif
• Microsoft Publisher, Microsoft
• Adobe Creative Suite (incl. Photoshop), Adobe
• Print Workshop, Value Soft
• Publishing Studio, Greenstreet Software Specialists
• The Print Shop, Broderbund
• Design & Print, Avanquest

Engineering

• EMI Software, EMI
• LabVIEW, National Instruments

Web Development

• Adobe Dreamweaver (part of Adobe CS), Adobe
• Microsoft Expression Web, Microsoft
• WebPlus, Serif
• NetObjects Fusion, NetObjects

Computer Aided Design and 3D Modelling/Rendering

• AutoCAD, Autodesk
• SmartDraw
• SketchUp, Google
• Autodesk Maya, Autodesk Media and Entertainment
• 3DsMax, Autodesk Media and Entertainment
• Lightwave 3D, Newtek
• Renderman Interface Specification, Pixar Animation Studios

Since it burst on to the IT scene in 2007 as part of a collaborative research project sponsored by Google and IBM, the term “cloud computing” has perhaps become one of the most overused and generalized phrases in the IT world. And yet, for all its recent presence in IT and computing, nobody seems to have any idea what it’s about. And nobody seems to be able to explain, in plain English, why it’s important.

What exactly is cloud computing? What is its significance? And most importantly, how does its emergence in the IT industry affect me? Cloud computing, in a very broad sense, refers to the shift from a locally driven, software and hardware-based computing environment to one where the Internet is the primary medium that is used to access applications and services. In other words, the applications you use aren’t located on your computer – they’re on the internet (“in the cloud”), where you can access them at any time and from anywhere.

Although cloud computing is in its early stages in terms of development and usage, its future benefits seem very obvious – because applications and services will be centralized on the Internet, IT professionals will no longer need to depend on expensive hardware and software solutions to get their work done.

But cloud computing doesn’t only benefit the company, nor does it only help by saving dollars; IT professionals, too, will have more opportunities and options. For example, the emergence of cloud computing could make the idea of a global market and workplace truly viable. IT professionals who are based in China could, for instance, apply for jobs at companies based in Vancouver – because applications, data, and services would all be centralized on the Internet, an individual would need only be familiar with the applications and tools that are used by that company in order to make a valuable contribution.

As well, the financial and cultural barriers that many individuals struggle with when accepting a new job somewhere else – for example, relocation costs, learning a new language, and adjusting to new expectations and demands – could largely be eliminated if cloud computing were developed to its full potential.

In short, the opportunities that would arise as a result of moving to the cloud would signal fundamental and positive changes in the way that IT industry conducts business, and that is a possibility that all of us should be very excited about.