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Which of these IT fields will me most in demand in the next 5-20 years? - Waxy Microsoft Windows 2003 / 2008 Administration and Engineering Cisco Network Administration and Engineering Information Systems Security Database Development and Management Web Based Software Development Virutalization Adobe Creative Development Java

Best Answer: Yikes...I would need a crystal ball to answer that. If I owned said crystal ball, I would use it to invest in the most demand companies and retire early. But I'll give you my 2 cents worth (and worth every penny!) >>Microsoft Windows Windows isn't going away, despite the best wishes of the Linux world. Windows will still dominate the corporate world 5 years from now. 20 years? Who knows. >> Cisco Network Administration Not an area I know alot about. Seems too specialized. Networks are becoming a commodity item. >> Information Systems Security BIG! Security is a big issue and will get bigger. The barriers for entry for creating interconnected applications keeps getting lower and lower. It's really easy today to create a Web based app tied to a database tied to web services with gobs of client side script. Anyone can do it. Far fewer can do it securely. At the same time, the barriers to entry for hackers anywhere on the planet keeps getting lower too. So you will have more and more hackers attacking systems that are less and less secure. You wanna be the one that can fix that ;-) >> Web Based The web is huge. But the barriers to entry are getting lower, competition is global...India, China, etc. You have to be more than just another web dev to make a decent living. You have to be better than most. >>Virutalization. (AKA Virtualization) Huge, especially if you include cloud computing in your definition. This is a growing field, and a complex one. If I was entering the field today, I would want to learn as much as I could about virtualization and the cloud. >> Adobe Creative Not qualified to answer. Seems like a niche market. >> Java Important, but I don't see growth here. I see Java as a great idea that never really took off. And it's getting a bit dated. (Dated doesn't mean dead. C/C++ is horribly dated, but they still have a place in the world, and you can probably make a living as a C dev in the next 5 years if you're good. But that's probably also true for COBOL). JMHO, 2 cents worth, etc... Don't design your life around these answers ;-) - Ratchetr

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