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If you want a job where you can train in a particular skill set and then never have to learn anything new, IT isn’t the field for you. But if you like to be constantly learning new things and developing new skills, you’re in the right business. In the late 80s, NetWare and IPX/SPX administration were the skills to have. Today, it’s all about TCP/IP and the Internet.

Let’s take a look at some of the skills you should be thinking about developing to keep on top of things in the tech world in the next years.

IPv6

Widespread adoption of the next generation of the Internet Protocol (IPv6) hasn’t come about as quickly as originally predicted, in large part because technologies such as NAT prevented the depletion of available IP addresses from happening as soon as anticipated.

However, with the number of hosts on the Internet growing steadily, the larger address space will eventually be critical to further expansion. IPv6 also offers better security with IPsec, a part of the basic protocol suite. Perhaps the inevitability of the transition is best indicated by the fact that Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Mac OS X 10.3, and the latest versions of other operating systems have IPv6 enabled by default.

With an entirely different address notation, called CIDR, and addresses written in hexadecimal instead of the familiar four octets of decimal numbers used by IPv4, there will be a learning curve for IT administrators.

The time to tune up your IPv6 skills is now, before the transition becomes mandatory.

Software as a service

Web 2.0, the next generation of the Internet, is all about Software as a Service.

Software as a Service (SaaS) involves delivering applications over the Web, rather than installing those applications on individual users’ machines. Some IT pundits have warned that SaaS will do away with IT administrators’ jobs entirely, but the more likely scenario is that the job description will change to one with less focus on deployment and maintenance of applications and more emphasis on broader-based planning, convergence, etc.

If SaaS takes off, the job market may also shift so that more jobs are concentrated in the application provider sector rather than in companies’ in-house IT departments. In that situation, IT pros who have the skills relating to service provision and multi-tenant architecture will have a head start when it comes to getting and staying employed.

Remote user support

The trend is toward more employees working off-site: executives taking their laptops on the road, telecommuters working from home at least a few days per week, personnel in the field connecting back to the LAN, and so forth. The IT staff will need to be able to support these remote users while maintaining the security of the internal network.

It will be important to learn skills relating to different VPN technologies (including SSL VPN) and technologies for health monitoring and quarantining of remote clients to prevent those that don’t meet minimal criteria (antivirus installed and updated, firewall enabled, etc.) from connecting to the LAN and putting the rest of the network at risk.

Wireless technology

Wireless networking is still in its infancy in the enterprise. Companies are establishing wireless LANs for the use of employees and visitors because it’s the most convenient way for portable computers to connect to the network, but many organizations are still wary of wireless, particularly its security implications.

But wireless isn’t going away, and the future promises faster and more secure wireless technologies. You’ll need to know about 802.11n, a new standard now in development and estimated to be released in late 2008, which will provide for a typical throughput of 74 Mbps with a theoretical maximum data rate of 248 Mbps and a longer range than current 802.11a/b/g standards.

Unified communications

Along with the growing popularity of VoIP, the concept of unified communications — the convergence of different communications technologies, such as e-mail, voicemail, text messaging, and fax — looks to be the wave of the future. Users will expect to have access to all their communications from a single interface, such as their Inbox, and from a variety of devices:

PCs Laptops smart phones PDAs traditional phones etc.

Convergence makes networks more complex, and IT administrators will need to develop skills for managing converged networks to compete in tomorrow’s job market.