Technology Trendsand the Skills You Should Learn

Calen Martin LegaspiCEOOrange and Bronze Software Labs

Who am I?

• CEO & Co-Founder - Orange & Bronze Software Labs

• Technology Director - Philippine Software Industry Association (PSIA)

• Industry Representative - CHED Technical Committee for Computer Science

• Co-Founder - Association of Filipino Java Developers (PinoyJUG)

• Member - Muay Thai Association of the Philippines,

Wrestling Association of the Philippines

What is the PSIA?• Industry association representing Philippine software industry

• Consists of 140 member companies generating close to $1 billion/yr in revenue

• Activities

o Overseas marketing

o Capability development - especially in Industry-Academe linkage

o Government relations

o Information & Research

Target Audience Primary: Aspiring Programmers

Secondary: Other Aspiring IT ProfessionalsBusiness Analysts

Systems Administrators

Project Managers

Applications Specialists

Marketing / Sales

Others

Cloud Computing Computing as a utility

- not installed

Types- SaaS

- IaaS

- PaaS

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) Fully-functioning applications

Examples: Gmail, Google Docs, Netsuite, Salesforce, Facebook, YouTube

They expose Web Services or “Open APIs”Third-party developers can build applications that interface with these.

Skill: Web Services Program-to-program communication over the internet

o Function calls on remote machines using HTTP

o Programs can be of different technologies

Examples:Facebook games/applications, workflows on top of Google Apps, extensions to

Netsuite & Salesforce

Typeso REST

o SOAP

Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) Remote infrastructure

o Servers, storage, support, virtualization...

o Fast scaling / auto-scaling

o Examples: Amazon Web Services, Rackspace

Skill: Linux Command Line Administration Remote administration is more efficient on command line

Administering through Remote Desktop is a pain

Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS)

PaaS

Skills Platforms

Google App Engine, Cloud Foundry (VMWare), Microsoft Azure

Programming LanguagesGAE: Java & JVM languages, Python

Cloud Foundry: Java & JVM languages, Ruby, Javascript (Node.js)

Azure: .Net languages

The Internet of Things

January 2010, scientists create a working transistor of only six carbon atoms

August 2010, AT&T and Verizon announce that non-human subscribers exceed human subscribers

on their networks

Ever smaller and cheaper Self-configuring Embedded Connected to the internet Everywhere

Welcome toThe Internet of Things

embedded in everything

interconnected devices, complex networks, massive data

Applications

Skills Web Services Other important specializations:

o Embedded devices (esp. sensors)

• Any CoE, ECE, EEE students out there?

• C/C++; Linux

o Cloud Computing & Big Data

o Business Intelligence

Agile Software Development Software development philosophy that is rapidly replacing traditional

processes

What is it?Depends on who you talk to

Schools of thought:Scrum, Extreme Programming, Agile Unified Process, Kanban, Crystal, dX, Lean,

etc.

Agile Software DevelopmentCommon practices and principles

• Focus on delivering what the customer really needs

• High levels of code quality

• Intense collaboration and communication

• Minimizing waste

• Test-Driven Development

• Short iterations (frequent delivery)

Skills Where to start?

Read on “Extreme Programming”

Other important topics:o Test-Driven Development

o Domain-Driven Development

o Design Patterns

o Version Control & Continuous Integration

Learn to work in teams Participate in as many projects as possible, ideally software projects, but other types of projects are good too

How about Mobile? Rapid obsolescence of mobile platforms

Palm, J2ME, Symbian, Blackberry...

Businesses value server-side moreMore investment on server-side, higher value of server-side developers

Convergence of client-side development on Javascript and HTML5

Skills Develop server-side skills as well

Multi-user, thread-safe, scalable, separation of concerns

Consider Javascript & HTML5 over platform-specific technologyCheck PhoneGap

How about Games? Platform-specific / company-specific skills

Difficult to transfer skills across companies

Local game dev companies tend to be small and unstableo Still no EA, Activision or Nintendo locally

o Limited outsourcing activity because of fragmented platforms

Which operating system?Linux – most popular server OS

~70% server market share

Easier remote administration, historically better stability, no viruses, better use of hardware resources, abundance of open source applications and tools...

Indeed.com:

Linux Administrator: $89,000

Windows Administrator: $81,000

Which programming languages should I learn?Salary survey from Indeed.com:

Java: $95,000

C++: $95,000

C#: $92,000

Python: $92,000

Ruby: $90,000

VB: $85,000

PHP: $81,000

On top three...Java & C# offer most flexible opportunities

o Highly transferable skills

o Useful for both web and mobile

o Java → platform independence

C/C++ work tends to be proprietaryo Locally, most work is device drivers

o Not suitable for web / mobile / enterprise

o Entrepreneurial opportunities in embedded devices

internet of things

Enterprise Development

• Enterprise (business) applications offer most job opportunities

• Server-side: Java or C#

• Client-side: Javascript & HTML5

• Prefer to develop server-side skills but compliment with Javascript

• Desktop development – don't bother

Enterprise Development• Thread-safety

• Separation of concerns

• Domain Driven Design

• MVC and other enterprise patterns

Drag-and-Drop will make you stupid!

• Learn to write maintainable, readable code

• Understand the underlying principles and technology

What is

Vision

To create a Filipino technology company admired by the world.

Vision

Contribute to rebuilding the Filipino technology community.

Software Development & Design Clients

Offshore Philippines

Training & Coaching Clients

Other Activities• Start-up incubation

• Sponsorship of technology events and organizations

• Industry-Academe LinkageConducting teacher training

Advising CHED, TESDA and PSITE

• Scholarships (soon)

Tiger Awards 2011Kuala Lumpur

Most productive investment in workforce - from staff training to social responsibility

Employment & Internship• Best developer training program in the country

• Highest engineering standards

• Excellent trainers and mentors

• Challenging projects

• Technopreneurship programs

jobs @ orangeandbronze.com

ojt @ orangeandbronze.com