The year 2000 is fast approaching and most companies especially those who are giving vital services to the community are most probably what we call Y2K ready if not able to cope with Y2K issues. There will be some that are not and some that do not care at all. Eventually, the Y2K concerns will just slowly fade away.

Now, "Y2K" experts will start to feel that their services are no longer needed and will suddenly realize that their "triple their value salaries" will not be that easy to achieve anymore. Some will continue with their lucrative Y2K consulting but most will be displaced in the post Y2K workplace.

As early as now, I learn from friends doing contracts for big firms that they are one by one having their contracts not renewed because those company's Y2K concerns are all taken cared off. Their usual US$120/hour job is now gone. They retreat back to their former US$45/hour job but they were already taken by people that stayed away from the Y2K consulting goldrush. No vacancies in that pay range. One of my friends was forced to take a US$30/hour job because he feared that that price range would be gone too once all Y2K projects are done.

I told my friend, stay on to that job but do not worry, not for long, a new buzzword in the computer industry will start to pop up and the Y2K frenzy will start again in another form.

My guess is the next buzzword is Data Warehousing. Though it was already in the IT field, it was overshadowed by the Y2K fad. I told my friend, learn Data Warehousing before the flood of Y2K veterans discover it.

He asked me, how can I be sure that Data Warehousing will be the next big thing in the IT world. The proof is simple, we see millions of websites in the internet and a lot of these websites are turning into cyber stores. Then he told me, then creating web sites should be the next big thing. I told him, no, anyone can create a website but not all can create a data warehouse which is the backbone of a cyber store.

For every product you order or click on, a database is referenced, everytime you put in your credit card, a database is referenced, when these stores need to ship, replenish their stocks, study their statistics, they will all touch their databases. A set of databases is an integral part of a Data Warehouse.

If you know Data Warehousing now, then you will be like the first gurus of Y2K. So there is life after Y2K, one good bet is to know Data Warehousing to support all those budding cyber stores.



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