2009: What's Next for Developers?
The final
Redmond Developer News issue of 2008 -- due to hit the street
on Dec. 15 -- will offer a glimpse into what promises to be a very stressful
and no doubt eventful 2009. Among the observations of our expert panelists:
- The economic downturn will do more than crater IT budgets and throw developers
out of their jobs. It will spur programmers to adopt cutting-edge technologies
and master new skills that will ultimately position them for the recovery
to come. The downturn will also transform dev organizations as they flock
to hybrid, open source/proprietary solution stacks in an effort to balance
cost and value.
- 2009 also promises to be a year of catching up, as developers assess new
and refreshed technologies like Silverlight 2, WPF, Windows Azure and .NET
Framework 4.0. You'll see real interest in cloud computing among firms suddenly
strapped for cash to pay for capital expenditures, but the heady task of planning
any cloud transition will prove daunting.
- No surprise, 2009 promises to be a busy year for rich Internet application
(RIA) development. But what's really interesting is how enterprises may turn
to RIA tools and runtimes to help them deliver cost-effective apps.
What challenges and changes do you think await Microsoft developers as they
enter 2009? E-mail me at mdesmond@reddevnews.com
with your prescient takes and we'll look to publish them in an upcoming issue
of RDN.
Posted by Michael Desmond on 12/02/2008