Top 10 Tech Skills for 2019

To help employees and companies keep up to speed with the latest technologies and trends, we’ve put together the top 10 tech skills for 2019. It’s important for employees to be equipped with the latest business skills and technical skills, in this blog, we take a look at trending tech skills you’ll want to keep an eye on in 2019. Based on analyzing the fastest-growing skills 30+ million people are learning on Udemy worldwide, we can spot what’s hot in the tech landscape. Here are the top 10 tech skills trending in 2019 and the new skills you’ll want to have under your belt.

1. Solidity

With blockchains on the rise, it’s not surprising that Solidity is the #1 top tech skill trending on Udemy in 2019. Solidity is a programming language for implementing smart contracts that run on Ethereum–a public decentralized blockchain platform. Ethereum is used by a wide range of organizations, including the United Nations, which has built a refugee aid system on Ethereum. This Ethereum-based blockchain system has helped make the process of delivering aid to over 10,000 Syrian refugees more efficient, secure and transparent. Solidity is a key language that your developers will need to learn in order to develop smart contracts for Ethereum. Ethereum and Solidity: The Complete Developer’s Guide is a Udemy course that can help developers come up to speed on the Solidity skills required. With Solidity, you can create smart contracts for uses such as voting, crowdfunding, blind auctions, and multi-signature wallets.

The possibilities are endless. Currently, blockchain is successfully being implemented for various financial service offerings such as recording the transfer of land and property titles, digital identity management, and managing voting records to help eliminate voter fraud. Supply chain management is an industry that is being massively disrupted by blockchains with companies like Walmart using blockchains for food supply management. Read Don’t Get Disrupted: Blockchain Skills Your Business Needs for Success.

2. Houdini Software

Houdini software is a rising star in the 3-D animation world for special effects, video games, and blockbuster movies like Blade Runner 2049, Guardians of the Galaxy, Shape of the Water, and Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Developed by Toronto-based SideFX, Houdini software is pretty much behind every movie up for the Oscar visual effect award these days so, it’s not surprising Houdini is the #2 top tech skill for 2019. Moreover, as virtual reality gaming takes off, Houdini is also a favorite for building VR animations.

Houdini is more mathematics and physics-based than traditional 3-D animation tools such as 3ds Max or Maya. As a result, Houdini requires a fundamental knowledge of programming and algorithms. While there’s a steep learning curve, once you’ve mastered Houdini, it enables special effects artists to transform physical elements that aren’t possible in other 3-D animation software. For example, artists can create physical effects such as smoke, fire, and liquid simulations in movies and have complete control of these elements in scenes. Best of all, unlike other 3-D animation software, it doesn’t require any additional plug-ins to create specific special effects. If you want to take part in the magic of Houdini, check out the VFX Complete Houdini Bootcamp. Don’t forget to brush up on your programming fundamentals in Python or C++ as well.

3. PHP Security

According to W3Techs, 79% of websites are powered by PHP in 2019, including big brands like Facebook, Wikipedia, and Pinterest. However, PHP’s market dominance also means it’s more vulnerable to cybersecurity breaches. According to cybersecurity firm Acunetix, “When developing a web application, it is extremely important to have security in mind and be aware of the different risks… Most of the vulnerabilities are a result of bad coding habits or lack of PHP security awareness by the developers.”

Moreover, the PHP 7 release has uncovered new vulnerabilities and security flaws that IT teams are scrambling to address, making PHP Security our #3 top tech skill trending in 2019. Make sure your PHP programmers are well-versed in how to secure their PHP web applications through online Udemy courses like Writing Secure PHP Code and PHP Beginner – Become a PHP Master.

4. TensorFlow

Machine learning and neural networks are the muscle behind artificial intelligence (AI) innovations that have taken the world by storm. Implementing machine learning models used to be a complex and difficult task that’s now made easier by TensorFlow’s open source library. It’s why TensorFlow is our #4 top tech skill for 2019.

TensorFlow is an open source machine learning framework developed by the Google Brain team. TensorFlow makes implementing deep learning and neural network models and algorithms much easier by offering an open source library for numerical computation and large-scale machine learning.
For example, TensorFlow can train and run deep neural networks for handwritten digit classification, image recognition, word embeddings, and natural language processing, according to Infoworld. To learn how to leverage TensorFlow, check out the Complete Guide to TensorFlow for Deep Learning with Python.

5. Functional Programming

Functional programming has become a really hot topic among Javascript programmers. Relatively unknown a few years ago, functional programming concepts are prevalent in most large application codebases today, making it our #5 top tech skill for 2019. Functional programming is based on lambda calculus, which was developed by Alonzo Church in the 1930s to study computations with functions. According to GeeksforGeeks, “functional programming is a programming paradigm in which we try to bind everything in pure mathematical functional style.”

The benefits of functional programming? Testing and debugging of the code is easier with pure functions. It’s also easier to do parallel or concurrent programming. Stack Overflow members explain more benefits here. Dive deep into what functional programming is all about in Udemy courses like Functional Programming for Beginners with Javascript or Scala and Functional Programming for Beginners.

6. Google Cloud

The trend toward enterprises preferring multi-cloud providers is opening the door for Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure to make inroads into the cloud space. While Amazon is still the market leader, Google Cloud grew by 76% in 2017 and Azure by 90% versus AWS’ 46% growth. Google’s expertise in AI and its open-source machine learning framework TensorFlow gives its cloud offerings an edge in the deep learning and big data space. With Google Cloud gaining ground, it’s not surprising it was the #6 fastest-growing top tech skill for 2019 on Udemy. (Microsoft Azure certification made our list of top tech skills in 2018).

Companies like Home Depot are “cloud-agnostic” and use both Azure and Google Cloud. “The philosophy goes to show that as long as there is more than one major cloud provider in the mix, enterprises will continue trying, comparing, and adopting more than one at a time, making way for Google Cloud to gain further ground,” writes Chris Parlette on ITProPortal.

In this same way, IT cloud architects may also want to have “multi-cloud” skills and pick up a few Google Cloud skills as well. Learn everything you need to know about Google Cloud on The Complete Google Cloud Data Engineer and Cloud Architect Guide.

7. Alteryx

Data science fueled by AI and machine learning is also opening up new possibilities across every industry. Alteryx’s recent 2018 software release revolutionizes the way data science is applied in the business setting–enhancing the way leaders make data-driven decisions. Alteryx is a new data science and machine learning platform–named a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant in February 2018. Given its strong momentum this year, Alteryx is the #7 fastest-growing skill in 2019 on our Udemy platform of 30+ million learners. Check out the Alteryx Bootcamp to master Alteryx developer skills.

8. Apache Camel

Apache Camel, our #8 top tech skill for 2019, helps solve integration headaches for developers. According to Jonathan Anstey on Dzone, “Apache Camel is an open source Java framework that focuses on making integration easier and more accessible to developers.”

Large enterprise applications can become nightmares for developers. Many business software applications like supply chain management, customer relationship management (CRM), business intelligence, and human resource systems can’t typically communicate with each other to share data. Integrating a larger number of these applications gets complex very quickly when they need to cross-communicate with each other. Apache Camel can solve all headaches and make the integration process a lot smoother.

According to Jan Martijn Roetman at Codecentric, “Apache Camel is a great tool when your application receives data from many different sources.” Roetman explains, “Apache Camel is a framework full of tools for routing data within an application…It focuses on getting different kinds of messages from different kinds of sources to their destination.” Want to learn more about Apache Camel? Check out the Udemy course Apache Camel for Beginners.

9. Programming Fundamentals

With programming on the rise in just about everything, it’s not surprising people are upskilling on programming fundamentals–making it our #9 top tech skill for 2019. In addition to coding skills critical to IT and data science, our #2 top tech skill Houdini Software is an example of how programming is becoming essential in the 3-D animation world as well. Brush up your coding skills with Udemy courses like The Complete Python Bootcamp, Python for Data Science and Machine Learning, Javascript: Understanding the Weird Parts, or Beginning C++ Programming.

10. System Center Configuration

In the past IT management and security used to be siloed, but with the increasing use of multiple workplace devices and platforms, Microsoft’s System Center Configuration Manager provides a single, comprehensive tool for both IT management and cutting-edge security. This unified infrastructure integrates device management and protection across mobile, physical, and virtual environments–enabling employees to access corporate applications from whatever device they choose while keeping corporate data secure.

The System Center Configuration Manager can manage and protect multiple platforms PCs, Macs, and Unix/Linux servers along with multiple cloud-based mobile devices running on Windows, iOS, and Android from a single management console. If you are an IT enthusiast and want to master this new technology, check out System Center Configuration Manager for Beginners.

To see last year’s hottest tech skills, check out The 9 Hot Tech Skills for 2018. If you’re interested in online courses for your team or organization, find out more about our Udemy for Business subscription.