The most in-demand technologies for IT professionals – TechRepublic

JavaScript and Java are the most in-demand languages for software developers, while Linux and Ubuntu are the top technologies for IT operations professionals.

IT professionals face an array of technologies, languages, and other skills that they need to know to stay current for their existing jobs and potential new jobs. But of course, there's only so much time and energy that an IT pro can devote to learning and mastering different skills. Knowing which technologes are most in-demand is half the battle to keeping your career on the right track. To help IT pros determine where to focus, Pluralsight has expanded its Technology Index to include in-demand technologies for IT operations professionals, information security pros, and data professionals.

To rank the demand and growth for more than 850 languages, tools, and frameworks, Pluralsight's Technology Index grabs information from more than 23 billion data points across eight different sources. The goal is to help technology leaders, experts, and other professionals keep pace with the ever-changing and fast-paced landscape of technology.

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"The pace of technology change is faster than ever, and tech leaders are struggling to keep pace," Nate Walkingshaw, chief experience officer at Pluralsight, said in a press release. "We created the Technology Index to give organizations an effective and easy-to-use tool to better understand the direction and cadence of the latest enterprise tech innovations. Using the Index, tech leaders can leverage independent data points to help inform their next tech investments and develop the skills their teams need."

The index breaks down its results across four different professions: Software Developer, Data Professional, IT Operations Professional, and Information Security Professional.

The top ten software development languages are dominated by legacy languages such as Java, Javascript, C and HTML, according to Pluralsight. But four new technologies--Python, Android Development, PHP, and Git--have entered the top ten since last year, pushing out Blockchain, jQuery, CSS, and Arduino.

"Software engineering teams face the challenge of maintaining expertise in core legacy languages such as JavaScript or C, while staying open to new technologies that enable them to create new products and services for their customers," Travis Kimmel, head of developer productivity at Pluralsight, said in a press release. "As software development languages, tools, and frameworks continuously evolve, engineers must find ways to stay informed on what's new and keep pace with the speed of change."

Rising demand for data-intensive applications using machine learning and artificial intelligence has created a greater need for data technologies in the enterprise market.

"Data is playing an increasingly important role for businesses looking to gain a competitive edge and as such, enterprises are investing heavily in technologies that enable machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI), and analytics to get the insights and deliver the services they need to stay ahead," James Aylward, head of learning at Pluralsight, said in a press release.

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Although platforms such as Linux, Ubuntu, macOS, and Microsoft Windows dominate the list, technologies such as Docker and Amazon S3 show the growing importance of cloud computing in the enterprise.

"The speed of technology innovation is faster than ever before, and technology leaders need to stay informed on the changing nature of enterprise tech in order to ensure they have sufficient resources to keep up with the pace of change," Walkingshaw said in the press release.

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As security threats continue to grow, data breaches are getting more common and more expensive, forcing enterprises to stay abreast of the latest security tools to protect their data and assets.

"Security is a top of mind concern for all technology leaders, especially heads of security and CISOs," Walkingshaw said. "As cyber threats evolve and adapt, enterprises must stay on top of the most relevant, up-to-date technologies to ensure that sensitive company and user data is protected from attacks and breaches."

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The most in-demand technologies for IT professionals - TechRepublic