Cloud consultancies, for all their vaunting of the revolutionary changes sparked by cloud technology, are coming up against that traditional dilemma in consulting practice: the tactical approach Vs strategic approach.

Big Data on its own is as dumb as it sounds: the process of extracting stories, information and patterns is what adds value to this commercial raw material. And Hadoop is the technology that adds the smarts to that process. 

In 2013 the IT sector will be an even better one for tech professionals. Increased demand for experience and skills will mean greater remuneration and bonus packages for those candidates who can match that demand.

But while this job market is in rude health there’s change and churn with rising star skill-sets and more traditional roles looking a little less secure.

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William Ernest Henley’s poem Invictus isn’t, as the recent Clint Eastwood movie of the same name portrayed it, a lyrical formula for achieving a moment of supreme glory but a poem about ceaseless struggle and relentless contest (in Henley’s case the struggle was against tuberculosis of the bone which awarded him a life of excruciating pain).

If it does have resonance today it’s with the contemporary job market, particularly the IT sector with its celebration of constant disruption and its demand for the techie’s continual re-invention. The end of social and job guarantees really does mean that the individual is master of his fate.