Trends in the IT Profession: Annotated BibliographyAdemola Adeleke Trends in IT 3University of Maryland University College Trends in the IT Profession – an Annotated Bibliography As IT professionals we must understand a range of technical and not-so-technical topics, and subjects and applications, both at the industry level but as well in a way that can be explained to clients and professionals in other fields who may or may not be familiar with the technical aspects of marrying business functions with technology. When at all possible a company should assign an IT professional to a business that the IT professional already understands. The speed of innovation, change, and improvement in technology makes this an on-going task. Depending on the business and its needs for technical systems and support, the IT professional’s expertise must include understanding of network infrastructures, in-depth knowledge of applications like database creation and maintenance, web security, and maintaining system integrity including backup and recovery processes. Because business has become so dependent on technology and IT professionals, many of these topics are covered in the mainstream press while others are know-well only by trained and experienced professionals – and all degrees in-between. Due to recent security breaches both at private and government levels, many more people now are familiar with Cloud Computing Services, security breaches, methods of backup and recovery, and legal liabilities and insurance. This research combines all three into a single study that will aid in understanding and explaining these trends to clients as well as other professionals and rather than ordered alphabetically, are organized in order to tell a story and more easily explain these trends. Annotated Bibliography Knorr, E., & Gruman, G. (Apr 7, 2008). What Cloud computing really means. In Info World on Infoworld.com. http://www.infoworld.com/d/Cloud-computing/what-Cloud-computing-really-means-031 While this article is somewhat dated, it gives a good overview and informs IT professionals as to the level of understanding clients might have. Knorr and Gruman explain how everyone has his or her own definition and understanding of “the Cloud.” Cloud computing is a value proposition to IT professionals because it is a needed tool for businesses that operate across a wide geography with employees that all need access to the same information and data. Cloud computing is the early stages could be explained to non-professionals by pointing-out how their emails are not really contained on their computer but instead are kept and stored on the email providers “Cloud-based” servers. This is known simply as “Web services in a Cloud” by a “managed service providers” (MSP). Infoworld talks to and keeps current with many vendors who provides services such as Saas, Utility computing, Platform as a service (PAS), Service commerce platforms, and Internet integration, to get various opini ...

1. Trends in the IT Profession: Annotated BibliographyAdemola
Adeleke
Trends in IT 3University of Maryland University College
Trends in the IT Profession – an Annotated Bibliography
As IT professionals we must understand a range of technical and
not-so-technical topics, and subjects and applications, both at
the industry level but as well in a way that can be explained to
clients and professionals in other fields who may or may not be
familiar with the technical aspects of marrying business
functions with technology. When at all possible a company
should assign an IT professional to a business that the IT
professional already understands. The speed of innovation,
change, and improvement in technology makes this an on-going
task. Depending on the business and its needs for technical
systems and support, the IT professional’s expertise must
include understanding of network infrastructures, in-depth
knowledge of applications like database creation and
maintenance, web security, and maintaining system integrity
including backup and recovery processes. Because business has
become so dependent on technology and IT professionals, many
of these topics are covered in the mainstream press while others
are know-well only by trained and experienced professionals –
and all degrees in-between. Due to recent security breaches both
at private and government levels, many more people now are
familiar with Cloud Computing Services, security breaches,
methods of backup and recovery, and legal liabilities and
insurance. This research combines all three into a single study
that will aid in understanding and explaining these trends to
clients as well as other professionals and rather than ordered
alphabetically, are organized in order to tell a story and more
easily explain these trends.
Annotated Bibliography

2. Knorr, E., & Gruman, G. (Apr 7, 2008). What Cloud computing
really means. In Info World on Infoworld.com.
http://www.infoworld.com/d/Cloud-computing/what-Cloud-
computing-really-means-031
While this article is somewhat dated, it gives a good
overview and informs IT professionals as to the level of
understanding clients might have. Knorr and Gruman explain
how everyone has his or her own definition and understanding
of “the Cloud.” Cloud computing is a value proposition to IT
professionals because it is a needed tool for businesses that
operate across a wide geography with employees that all need
access to the same information and data. Cloud computing is the
early stages could be explained to non-professionals by
pointing-out how their emails are not really contained on their
computer but instead are kept and stored on the email providers
“Cloud-based” servers. This is known simply as “Web services
in a Cloud” by a “managed service providers” (MSP). Infoworld
talks to and keeps current with many vendors who provides
services such as Saas, Utility computing, Platform as a service
(PAS), Service commerce platforms, and Internet integration, to
get various opinions on innovations in Cloud computing. All of
these isolated Clouds of service allow IT customers to plug-in
individually from any location. The purpose of this article is to
inform readers about the range of services and advantages of
Cloud computing and the targeted audience is those in IT and
customers interested in Cloud services. The tone is very
informative but is biased to those who don’t really understand
nor have knowledge of Cloud computing yet.
Nanavati, M., Colp, P., Aiello, B., & Warfield, A. (2014).
Cloud security: A gathering storm. Communications of the
ACM, 57(5), 70-79. doi:10.1145/2593686
Communications of the ACM is a monthly journal by the
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and is the oldest
and most respected publication in the industry. The articles’
intended audiences are professionals in all areas of computer

3. science and information systems with a focus on advances in
information technology and management issues. The journal
covers science and technology but also business aspects of the
trade and are either peer reviewed or peer-review themselves –
that is summaries of research conducted and published
elsewhere. This article focuses on Cloud computing and data
security and emphasizes the need to engineer systems that
provide desired isolation as well as security guarantees to
clients. Cloud computing now is more than just a storage device
server remotely located but also applications and proprietary
software that can be accessed and used from any location. The
authors explain how difficult it can be for users to users to
understand and evaluate “commercial virtualization platforms”
the importance of developing a client relationship and trust in
their Cloud provider. It asserts that trends going forward will
include transparency and better explanations of the Cloud
infrastructure concept to prospective clients in business.
Srinivasan, S. (2013) "Is security realistic in Cloud
computing?," Journal of International Technology and
Information Management: Vol. 22: Iss. 4, Article 3.
Available at:
http://scholarworks.lib.csusb.edu/jitim/vol22/iss4/3
With recent hacks of government systems from the
pentagon to the white House, as well as penetrations into retail
and banking sectors either as vandalism, like the Ashley
Madison server and criminal for-profit intrusions of
corporations like Target stores, one of the biggest challenges of
Cloud computing is assuring impenetrable security for a range
of businesses and applications. Very often these concerns of
businesses in their decision-making processes can negate the
perceived convenience and cost advantages that Cloud
computing can offer; the more often highly publicized
intrusions occur, the more difficult it is to sell clients in the
concept. This article analyzes over 50 research articles and
industry studies done over the previous five years and examines
adequate security features in the context of three varieties of

4. Cloud services – SaaS, PaaS and IaaS. It focuses on the security
concerns of businesses and how IT professionals and Cloud
providers can build customer trust. In addition to security
concerns, IT professionals need to be familiar with causes and
prevention of “outages” in service and server reliability and
explains various strategies in storage, back-up, and recovery
should outages or intrusions occur. As well it covers Cloud
“support compliance” requirements and legal aspects of Cloud
computing like liability and understanding of available
insurance option and strategies.
Serrano, N., Gallardo, G., & Hernantes, J. (March 01, 2015).
Infrastructure as a service and Cloud technologies. Ieee
Software, 32, 2, 30-36.
This article examines numerous aspects of the Enterprise
Cloud Market including reliability, security, and back-up and
recovery of systems as it relates to marketing and the client’s
making the right decisions. Software is increasingly being
consumed and shared from the Cloud so that members of an
organization or business cannot only access data but can
actually access and use software programs that are contained in
their Cloud rather than on individual computers. This allows for
collaborative work to be done by teams in distant locations from
each other. As well, trends point to smaller businesses keeping
their entire business infrastructure loaded onto the Cloud but
this also carries its own risks. Still though despite risks and
concerns over security and reliability – the chance that an entire
infrastructure can go down at a crucial and costly time – the
cost savings point to Cloud infrastructure being a lasting
method for better and cheaper integration especially for smaller
organizations. The authors assert that the realities of Cloud
security and reliability might be much different than what a
salesperson for a vender might portray to prospective clients –
the time and money that can be lost by outrages can in one
prolonged incident cancel out all previous savings. This is even
a bigger consideration when clients and workforce are
disconnected from critical infrastructure – or even simply if it

5. doesn’t perform as intended – “which happens more often than
what brokers and providers disclose” (32).
Dzielinski, P. (2014). The ever looming nature of cyber
liability. (cover story). Insurance Advocate, 125(5), 16-18.
To combat fears about Cloud computing and security,
as well as reliability and critical outages, a new insurance
industry has developed. IT professionals are realizing that not
only is Cloud commuting, storage of data and applications and
even infrastructure often less costly, it might even be safer that
building their own systems. With the rise of
“cyber insurance” the option of contracting for Cloud services
from a reputable provider-carrier, is becoming less risky. While
this article is about insurance companies themselves (and
banks) resorting to use of proven providers rather than about
cyber-security itself, the author covers a variety of scenarios
and innovations in the use of Cloud services. Points are made
about recovery from natural disasters like storms and man-made
disasters that can occur and discusses “hybrid” Cloud
arrangements where parts of a business are stored and are
operated on-site while other functions and data are Cloud stored
and contained. No mentions is made though of automated
systems that might on-cue upload on-site data and information
in the event of such a disaster but good points are made about
how home-built original systems can end-up costing more when
expansions and additions are needed; with a competent Cloud
provider those costs can be predicted and accounted for making
a reputable provider preferable to on-site design.
Violino, B. (2014). Cloudy with a chance of privacy. Insurance
Networking News, 17(5), 20-23.
This article in a respected trade publication lists and
explains Best Practices in Cloud computing as well as critique
current services already on the market like Amazon, Microsoft
Azure, Rackspace, and Google’s App Engine and gives a brief
lesson and checklist on how to choose wisely. Best Practices
include elasticity (ability to expand as needed), security,
monitoring, “High Availability” (reliability), and performance.

6. As well is contained a professional examination of “stackable”
options and hybrids that can link public and private platforms
securely like Eucalyptus, Openstack, and Cloudstack. These
options are becoming more and more important as a way of
having flexibility to couple and de-couple functions on-site and
Cloud-stored as well as and solutions to spikes in demand
(Cloudbursting) on-the-fly seamlessly and efficiently. The
authors explain as more Cloud services, applications, and
infrastructures become available how much more important
elasticity in design for more expandability and easier
modifications is becoming and why hybrid systems are likely
the trend of the future.