With the IT industry evolving at a break-neck pace, it’s easy for even the most seasoned IT professionals to fall behind industry growth.

Automation has taken over the routine and repetitive tasks that have a focal point for many workdays, and now more than ever it’s crucial for IT pros to be on top of their game.

Hardware purchasing, racking, stacking and configuring routers are all at risk of becoming obsolete, thanks to innovation in virtualization and cloud computing.

So, what’s an IT person to do in order to keep up with the evolution of IT?

Understand Everything About the Cloud

The cloud is perhaps the most visible component of the evolution of IT. Just about everyone is migrating to the cloud. If you’re in charge of spearheading this effort, you should understand exactly what that entails. To succeed in today’s business environment, IT pros should be adept at setting up, integrating and securing cloud deployments. This may be a good opportunity to take advantage of skill development incentives through your HR department if available, such as reimbursement on certification courses.

Stay Up-to-Date on Cybersecurity Threats & How to Combat Them

Cybersecurity is the number one concern that most business owners have today in regard to information technology. Businesses are looking to take advantage of any methods they can take to secure their data before they are targeted by an attack. Being able to understand and identify where your business is susceptible and implementing new technology to combat that will help everyone go to sleep a little easier. Along with the evolution of IT, cyber threats also continue to evolve, making it an area you’ll want to put a huge focus on.

Be Able to Interpret Big Data

The information your business has collected over time is an invaluable resource, but previously time has prevented you from making use of big data. Big data is a term for sets of data that are so large and complex that traditional data processing software can’t deal with adequately. For retailers, government agencies, healthcare providers, insurance companies, and many other industries, big data poses incredible possibilities. Take the time to develop a system to interpret this data so it can be put to use for your brand.

Embrace Machine Learning & the Internet of Things

Having a strong understanding of how these elements of IT work essentially future-proofs your career. Today, everything is interconnected, and even when hosted in the cloud, networks are more complex than ever before. Aside from making these technologies work for your business, focus on the security aspect of these devices and how they interact with your network. While IoT is taking a greater stake in what companies are doing from a technology perspective, the concept is still in its infancy, and can expose your network to risks that weren’t there before.
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ThrottleNet is a full-service Managed Services provider in the St. Louis area helping small businesses take control of their IT for over 17 years. Get more insights on the ThrottleNet blog.