IT execs in Australia ought to be trying ahead to a giant yr in 2024, as ongoing transformation continues to redefine their roles inside their corporations. Those that have certifications and capabilities in areas similar to safety, knowledge evaluation and enterprise evaluation might be extremely sought out and valued by employers. Coupled with an ongoing abilities scarcity, these execs who spend the trouble to develop their skillsets in response to present traits will do nicely, whatever the broader financial circumstances.
Budgets are there for the suitable options
In accordance with Gartner, IT spending in Australia is predicted to exceed $133 billion in 2024, which is a considerable improve of seven.8% on the earlier yr (Determine A). This might be pushed most importantly by demand in software program, together with cloud companies, which can improve by 12.8%.
Moreover, highlighting the influence of the talents scarcity, demand for IT companies, together with managed companies, will see spending improve by 8.2%. Organisations, which can wish to embrace innovation, will discover themselves turning to 3rd events if they will’t useful resource the options internally.
What this implies for IT execs
Upskilling goes to be central to profession growth for IT execs this yr. These that target gaining certifications in areas of sizzling demand — particularly cloud applied sciences and synthetic intelligence — might be extremely valued by organisations.
SEE: Australian IT execs with the suitable certifications and expertise will discover some massive new alternatives open to them.
Moreover, this can be a good yr for IT execs to think about shifting into managed companies and creating an understanding of how organisations throughout a spread of sectors function.
Digital companies will dominate company mindsets
Australian organisations used the disruption attributable to the COVID-19 pandemic to make investments closely in digital innovation. These investments are actually beginning to bear fruit; as throughout cyber safety, cloud platforms, knowledge and analytics and utility modernisation, there may be now maturity that’s resulting in superior know-how options and new income streams.
Areas similar to e-commerce, on-line marketplaces, FinTech and HealthTech are all now assembly the wants of consumers who’re digital natives and like to eat companies that means. In e-commerce, for instance, Australia is the Twelfth-largest market, and ranks forward of markets with a lot bigger populations, similar to Brazil.
What this implies for IT execs
With maturity, organisations and authorities our bodies alike want to begin rolling out new digital companies. For instance, in 2024, the Australian authorities will launch Digital IDs after a number of years of laying out the groundwork.
IT professionals will have to be ready to work in extremely agile environments the place the main focus might be firmly on leveraging digital know-how to launch new merchandise and deepen the shopper expertise.
Cyber safety might be a mad scramble for compliance
In late 2023, the Australian authorities unveiled its 2023-2030 Cyber Safety Technique, an bold, far-reaching and transformative method to nationwide cyber safety that goals to take Australia from being vulnerable to knowledge breaches and loss to being a worldwide chief.
SEE: Cyber safety traits to observe in Australia in 2024.
This technique will lead to new insurance policies and areas for compliance, in addition to enhanced penalties for non-compliance, that means that cyber safety might be an space of enhanced threat for organisations. Among the areas for motion over the following seven years that may begin to see motion in 2024 embody:
- Efforts to reinforce public-private collaboration and mechanisms for cyber menace sharing and blocking.
- Renewed efforts to deal with the abilities disaster by enhancing Australia’s cyber safety workforce and abilities pipeline.
- New nationwide frameworks to answer main cyber incidents.
- Funding in neighborhood consciousness and sufferer help.
- Additional funding within the nationwide cyber safety ecosystem.
- Higher efforts to design and implement safety in new applied sciences.
Whereas that is aimed toward enhancing cyber safety outcomes throughout the nation, organisations, and notably small and midsize companies, are going to battle to maintain up with the fast motion that the federal government is making on this space.
What this implies for IT execs
Each IT skilled in each space ought to take the time to develop some stage of cyber safety competency. Organisations are going to look to their IT groups for management on this, and the speed of change implies that all IT professionals ought to guarantee their cyber safety abilities and certifications are saved present and up-to-date.
The place IT execs ought to focus abilities growth
There may be an ongoing want for IT professionals to behave as a bridge between IT groups and the broader enterprise. As organisations rely extra closely on IT to ship merchandise and income streams, IT execs that higher perceive the broader position of IT throughout the enterprise might be extremely valued.
SEE: Australian organisations want to expertise as a service to fill abilities gaps.
In accordance with Hays, the highest 5 abilities for IT execs to give attention to in 2024 are:
- Cyber safety: Organisations might want to grapple each with the proliferation of threats and the shifting regulatory atmosphere.
- Full-stack growth: The demand for utility modernisation, apps and digital software program will gasoline the necessity for full stack builders.
- Knowledge evaluation: In 2024, knowledge evaluation abilities are going to be much more essential for making data-driven choices and improvements.
- Enterprise evaluation: Enterprise evaluation abilities are necessary for making certain the alignment and success of IT tasks and initiatives.
- Cloud platforms: Cloud platform abilities are in demand for managing and optimising cloud companies and assets to enhance efficiencies as required capability scales.
IT execs are well-placed to climate the financial storm
Although the general financial system will doubtless proceed to face challenges this yr — Australia nonetheless has points with the price of dwelling, inflation and international macroeconomic circumstances — the IT sector, which might leverage know-how to mitigate a few of these challenges, ought to see a powerful yr. For IT professionals, there’s a lot to look ahead to.