LEARN WHAT 'S HAPPENING IN THE IT INDUSTRY

IT going green; the next big thing in technology; the IT salary scoop; and a report of steady IT employment despite national job woes … learn what’s happening in the IT industry:

According to CIO Insider, the next big thing in technology—the memristor, a microscopic component that can "remember" electrical states even when turned off—is expected to be far faster and cheaper than flash storage. It’s already starting to revolutionize everything we know about computing, and could make flash memory, RAM, and hard drives obsolete within 10 years, http://www.cio.com/article/457970.

The news in the general employment market in October was sobering, but IT employment dipped only slightly, according to the National Association of Computer Consultant Businesses (NACCB), which tracks monthly IT employment. NACCB reports that IT employment stood at 3,916,200, a slight drop of 3,000 jobs, http://www.naccb.org/employment-index.

As reported on eWeek.com, the idea of green IT—saving bottom-line dollars while conserving power—is becoming one of the best ways to get previously unconnected divisions within enterprises, IT and facilities staff members, to talk to each other. IT research company Gartner Inc., reports that it has identified 11 relatively simple best practices for data center managers that could save millions of kilowatt hours each budget year, including plugging holes in data center rooms, establishing cold-air/hot-air aisles between the racks and using cool air from the outside whenever possible, http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Green-IT. 

According to Computerworld's 22nd annual Salary Survey, based on responses from 6,801 U.S. IT workers, total compensation (salary plus bonus) rose an average of just 3.5% this past year, reflecting little change over the 3.7% average increase reported in 2007. Meanwhile, bonuses for IT professionals rose by an average of only 0.2% in 2008, compared with 3.4% in 2007, http://www.computerworld.com/action.

According to a report on Computerworld.com, information technology leaders hungry to recruit .Net programmers, desktop support technicians and voice-over-IP project leaders are placing the greatest emphasis on ethics and morals. The Society for Information Management (SIM) conducted an online survey in June that showed respondents’ choices for ethics and morals overwhelmingly topped other in-demand skills such as communication skills and business acumen, http://www.computerworld.com/action.