Top 10 IT skills for 2013: from Windows 8 to HTML5

One of the best things about the technology industry is the breakneck pace at which it moves, offering up new innovations, ideas and products with regularity.

However, this can also mean that no sooner have you got your head around one trend or new skills to take on board than three more have come along that need attention and understanding too. Blink and you'll miss it.

For those in charge of numerous aspects of their organisation's IT operations 2013 looks set to be no different. So, we at V3 have come up with what we see as 10 of the top skills worth honing for the year ahead, and which just may land you that dream job. If you have your own ideas, please leave a comment at the bottom of the article.

Honourable mention: IT support and management skills

Even though IT support roles are likely to decrease in the future as business users become more tech savvy and use their own devices in the workplace, IT support professionals are still currently very much in demand. As enterprises embrace bring-your-own-device (BYOD) strategies, and allow employees to adopt their own chosen cloud applications, there is often actually increasing work for IT support professionals.

General IT management skills also continue to have a place in businesses. IT managers will be especially valuable to a business if they have demonstrable knowledge of which applications best suit the cloud and experience in deploying a BYOD strategy. Digital asset management is also useful knowledge to have as business users adopt more and more profiles on line.

Predictions made that the corporate IT department will soon die off are a long time coming.

10. Windows 8

Following the release of Windows 8 last year, organisations are having to face up to the likelihood that they will see systems with the new platform hitting their network sooner or later, even if it is much, much later, if IT chiefs have any say in the matter.

Microsoft maintains that Windows 8 client devices will fit easily into an existing Active Directory domain alongside earlier versions of Windows, but it is the stark difference in the user experience that marks out Windows 8, and users will be looking for guidance to help them make the transition.

However, Windows 8 will also call for other skills in the area of app development and support, if organisations wish to take full advantage of the new "Modern" user interface and its associated app model.

Not only do the new apps use a different development process from existing Windows apps, but large organisations will need to get to grips with the process of "sideloading" in-house apps to Windows 8 clients on their network, a process that is not as simple as it may first sound.