industry news
HALF OF IT PROFESSIONALS DON’T
USE ALL OF THEIR ANNUAL LEAVE
Research from the Robert Walters Career Lifestyle Survey has revealed
that IT specialists are the least likely to use all of their annual leave among
all professionals.
Forty-four per cent of IT professionals said that they had not taken all of
their allocated annual leave in the past year, compared to an average of 36 per
cent among all professions.
With many businesses looking to overhaul their e-commerce systems,
as well as an increased emphasis on cyber security, IT professionals from a
range of specialisms have come under pressure to deliver large scale projects
to tight deadlines.
This has left many struggling to find opportunities to take all of their annual
leave while still delivering projects on time.
Ahsan Iqbal, associate director at Robert Walters, commented, ‘In the last
year, IT professionals working in cyber security have seen a particular spike in
demand for their skills, driven by several data breaches at high profile companies
in 2015. As a result, employers have been keen to bring these professionals
onboard to undertake large scale overhauls of digital security systems.
‘Given the immediate threat posed by a weak cyber security system, IT
professionals are often under significant time pressure to complete these projects.’
Datapipe acquires Adapt
Datapipe has announced the acquisition of
managed cloud services provider and Advanced
AWS Consulting Partner Adapt. The acquisition will
expand Datapipe’s European presence and enhance
capabilities for clients worldwide.
Adapt specialises in agile hybrid solutions that
deliver the best of public and private cloud to clients as
a single service. Both companies take a transformative
approach to cloud, partnering with enterprises to
innovate, optimise, and scale mission critical and dayto-day IT operations.
‘Adapt and Datapipe both have cultures that focus
on proactive, high touch customer service and a
commitment to customer specific solutions designed to
meet clients’ individual business challenges,’ said Robb
Allen, CEO, Datapipe. ‘Our similar approach to guiding
clients on their cloud journey makes the acquisition a
natural fit for us and will increase our scale and service
capabilities in the United Kingdom, and the broader
European market.’
Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed.
You’re invited –
Pink Elephant Party
The Pink Elephant party has been running since 1999.
Each year it has attracted hundreds of IT and
network infrastructure professionals and has raised
over £300,000 for charities since it began.
This Pink Elephant has teamed up with Orchid, the
male cancer charity, which exists to save men’s lives
from male cancer through a range of support services,
education and awareness campaigns and a pioneering
research programme.
To celebrate Pink Elephant’s sweet 16th and
Orchid’s upcoming 21st birthday this fundraiser is open
to everyone up for a fun evening. Hosted at a brand
new venue, Revolution Bar in America Square, Tower
Hill, London, the event will feature a live band, East of
Java, for what promises to be a fantastic evening.
Tickets are £25 each and can be bought
via the Pink Elephant Party website: www.
pinkelephantparty.com
CHANNEL CONFIDENT OF
REDUCING SKILLS GAP BY 2020
Channel leaders are confident the skills gap will be reduced by 2020,
according to research by OnePoll.
Commissioned by Agilitas, the aim of the research was to understand how
skills in the industry will develop by 2020.
The survey of IT resellers, managed service providers and independent
IT providers revealed a confident outlook, with 75 per cent expecting the
skills gap to change by 2020, and 64 per cent believing it will be resolved or
reduced. A minimal 17 per cent believed the gap will become worse in the
next four years.
‘The trend is in contrast to the arguments that we’ve heard recently
about running out of talent,’ commented Shaun Lynn, CEO of Agilitas. ‘Our
research revealed that rather than resting on their laurels, many in the industry
are confident of being able to make positive changes and reduce the gap.’
The research also looked to understand what channel leaders plan to
do to assist in reducing the skills gap, revealing that fostering high quality
technical skills is a key priority in the channel. Forty-seven per cent s ee a lack
of internal training as the key reason for a continued skills shortage in 2020,
and around two thirds (62 per cent) view training of existing staff as key to
reducing the gap by 2020, suggesting talent development is a key focus
amongst industry leaders.
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