Offshoring Is Your Wal-Mart: Don't Take It Head-On

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In This Issue:
1. Editor's Note: Offshoring Is Your Wal-Mart: Don't Take It Head-On
2. Today's Top Story
    - You Vs. Offshoring
    - Average IT Manager Makes $99,000, Staffer $73,000, InformationWeek Survey Finds
    - InformationWeek National IT Salary Survey 2006
    - How Does Your Pay Rate? Try Our 2006 InformationWeek IT Salary Adviser
3. Breaking News
    - McNealy Steps Down As Sun CEO; Schwartz Steps Up
    - Former CA CEO Kumar Pleads Guilty
    - Intel Promises New vPro Chips For Business
    - In A Reversal, Feds Says Outsourced Programmers Are Eligible For Assistance
    -CIOs Retain IT Staff With Training And Flex Time, Not Money
    - More U.S. Workers Have IT Jobs Than Ever Before
    - Job Market Booming For Skilled IT Professionals
    - IT Careers: Making A Change
    - Brief: Apple To Ship New MacBook To Stores Next Week
    - Visual Studio 2005 Express Free Of Charge 'Forever'
    - Intel Slashes Desktop Chip Pricing
    - Microsoft Digs Its Teeth Into Entertainment
    - Mozilla Patches Thunderbird, Ends Development On Mozilla Suite
    - EBay Launches Express, New Instant-Buying Service
    - Microsoft Resumes Legal Battle With Europe
4. Grab Bag
    - Surf To Your Heart's Delight
    - Microsoft: 'We're The Victim'
    - Pioneering Wi-Fi City Sees Startup Woes
    - Texas Community College Bans MySpace.com
5. In Depth
    - University Of Texas Computer Breach Exposes 200,000 Records
    - Another Zero-Day Bug Smacks IE
    - Hacker's Toolkit Attacks Unpatched Computers
    - Click Fraud Less Than Expected, Monitoring Firm Says
6. Voice Of Authority
    - Down To Business: IT Globalization: Don't Kill The Messenger
7. White Papers
    - Making The Business Case For IP Communications
8. Get More Out Of InformationWeek
9. Manage Your Newsletter Subscription

Quote of the day:
"One machine can do the work of 50 ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man." -- Elbert Hubbard

1. Editor's Note: Offshoring Is Your Wal-Mart: Don't Take It Head-On
Offshoring is to U.S. IT workers what Wal-Mart is to retail. If you're squarely in its path, competing head to head on price, you'll be crushed by the economics in its favor. But that doesn't mean the death of the IT career.

As shown in InformationWeek's cover story, You Vs. Offshoring, there are a lot of positive signs in the IT job market. Just as many retailers have learned to survive and thrive in a Wal-Mart world by competing on factors other than price, many U.S. IT workers are finding there's still a lucrative place for them despite the lower-cost competition from global IT.

Two numbers surprised me most in our IT salary survey, which brought responses from more than 10,000 IT pros. One is job stability, which improves noticeably. Two years ago, 19% of IT staffers felt insecure in their jobs, and just 31% felt strongly secure. Today, just 12% feel insecure, and 42% feel strongly secure. For managers, 50% feel strongly secure today, up from 40% two years ago. The second is whether the career looks as promising as five years ago. Nearly twice as many IT staffers this year thinks it's as promising as it was five years ago--but that's still up to only 30% of IT staffers. This is the question that gets closest to "Would you recommend an IT career to a kid?" which has been discussed passionately on this blog before. (Another article of interest: Latest government employment stats show IT unemployment at 2.5%, with management jobs fueling the growth.)

The Wal-Mart analogy is apt in that offshoring has created a brutal and uncertain competitive environment for IT pros. Just as Wal-Mart roared into the grocery business, and could move into banking and even health care, the key question for offshore IT offerings is "What categories can it succeed in next?" Everyone in IT has to actively manage an IT career with one eye on offshoring. It's the tension that runs through our coverage this week. Our data and reporting paint a picture of IT pros feeling more confident that they can keep their careers out of offshoring's path. The kids behind them, they're not so sure.

How do you stay ahead of offshoring? Leave a message on the InformationWeek Weblog and let us know.

Chris Murphy
[email protected]
www.informationweek.com

2. Today's Top Story

You Vs. Offshoring
U.S. tech pros are surprisingly upbeat, and pay is on the rise. But the job outlook is anything but warm and fuzzy.

3. Breaking News

McNealy Steps Down As Sun CEO; Schwartz Steps Up
The changing of the guard comes as Sun reports widening losses, but Scott McNealy says the company is poised for a comeback.

Former CA CEO Kumar Pleads Guilty
The charges could lead to up to 20 years in prison, but a guilty plea may significantly decrease the amount of time spent in jail.

Intel Promises New vPro Chips For Business
Due in the third quarter, new chip platform promises improved PC security and lower power consumption.

In A Reversal, Feds Says Outsourced Programmers Are Eligible For Assistance
Outsourced computer programmers now can collect the same benefits routinely extended to factory workers who've seen their jobs disappear amid a flood of cheap, manufactured imports.

CIOs Retain IT Staff With Training And Flex Time, Not Money
A survey of CIOs shows the most popular tactic for keeping IT staff happy is to offer training and flexible schedules.

More U.S. Workers Have IT Jobs Than Ever Before
U.S. IT employment reached a record high of 3.472 million in the 12 months ended March 31, surpassing the 3.455 million employed the previous quarter.

Job Market Booming For Skilled IT Professionals
The tight labor supply and the growth in the economy are helping to propel IT wages, according to the Yoh Index.

IT Careers: Making A Change
Is your IT job feeling a little stale? It's a great time to switch companies or even industries, and some emerging fields and technologies could make a change all the more intriguing.

Brief: Apple To Ship New MacBook To Stores Next Week
The MacBook Pro is an Intel-based laptop replacing the PowerBook.

Visual Studio 2005 Express Free Of Charge 'Forever'
Intended for hobbyists and students, Microsoft's Express editions have limited functionally and streamlined user interfaces. However, their licenses do allow commercial deployment.

Intel Slashes Desktop Chip Pricing
The price reductions, which Intel said went into effect Sunday, come as the market awaits an announcement of a new Intel desktop platform.

Microsoft Digs Its Teeth Into Entertainment
Among this week's key announcements: Universal Pictures and Microsoft said they have collaborated on creating high-definition DVDs using VC-1, the video compression standard recently approved by an entertainment industry trade group.

Mozilla Patches Thunderbird, Ends Development On Mozilla Suite
As the company issued fixes for various products, it said 1.7.13 version of its Mozilla browser suite was the last it would produce, putting an end to a 12-year browser line that went back to the original Netscape.

EBay Launches Express, New Instant-Buying Service
The site went public over the weekend and features 10 million items for sale initially; it's trying to woo buyers who want to buy something immediately rather than bidding and waiting.

Microsoft Resumes Legal Battle With Europe
Although the hearing—about whether Microsoft has made sufficient progress in its antitrust remedies to avoid daily fines--concludes Friday, the 13 judges on the panel won't make their decision for another year.

All our latest news

Watch "The News Show"

In this edition:

John Soat With 'The News Train'
Linux threats double, Cisco patches security vulnerabilities, streaming media expected to grow and grow, and more ...

Chris Murphy With 'Career Weather Report'
Is the IT career outlook sunny or cloudy?

Laurie Sullivan With 'The Future In 3-D'
Director James Cameron says 3-D will make a major comeback in movie theaters.

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4. Grab Bag News You Need From Around The Web

Surf To Your Heart's Delight (Wired News)
Saying surfing the Web is equivalent to reading a newspaper or talking on the phone, an administrative law judge has suggested that only a reprimand is appropriate as punishment for a city worker accused of failing to heed warnings to stay off the Internet.

Microsoft: 'We're The Victim' (Wired News)
The European Commission forced the world's largest software maker to offer a product no one wanted and no one bought, Microsoft told a European Union court on Monday as it began trying to overturn a landmark antitrust ruling.

Pioneering Wi-Fi City Sees Startup Woes (Yahoo News)
More than a month after St. Cloud, Fla., launched what analysts say is the country's first free citywide Wi-Fi network, folks in this 28,000-person Orlando suburb are still paying to use their own Internet service providers as dead spots and weak signals keep some residents offline and force engineers to retool the free system.

Texas Community College Bans MySpace.com (Yahoo News)
Del Mar College students now have to use computers outside the school's system if they want to visit the popular Web site MySpace.com. The community college has blocked the site in response to complaints about sluggish Internet speed on campus computers.

5. In Depth

University Of Texas Computer Breach Exposes 200,000 Records
The breach, the university's second in three years, included some Social Security numbers and "possibly other biographical data," according to a statement.

Another Zero-Day Bug Smacks IE
A researcher's note, circulated by Symantec, says that Internet Explorer is prone to memory corruption because of the way it handles malformed HTML.

Hacker's Toolkit Attacks Unpatched Computers
The 'smartbomb' toolkit sniffs for seven unpatched vulnerabilities in Internet Explorer and Firefox, then attacks the easiest-to-exploit weakness.

Click Fraud Less Than Expected, Monitoring Firm Says
The average click-fraud rate across search-advertising industries is around 14%, substantially less than the expected 20% to 35%, according to a new report.

6. Voice Of Authority

Down To Business: IT Globalization: Don't Kill The Messenger
Don't try to seal off our borders, either. Employment and pay are up, so we must be doing something right, Rob Preston says.

7. White Papers

Making The Business Case For IP Communications
This white paper describes the factors to consider in developing a strategic and financial business case for Cisco IP communications solutions. It covers the distinct value delivered for different IP communications technologies and deployment scenarios. It also discusses the measurable, highly attractive financial returns and productivity.

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