Next year will see more firms demanding network administration services and data management, a new survey suggests.

Research carried out on behalf of Robert Half Technology found that one in five IT managers predict growth in networking services in 2008, with 70 per cent suggesting employees with proven skills in this area will be in high demand.

Explaining the growing interest in improving networking infrastructure, the executive director of Robert Half, Katherine Spencer Lee, said that increasing numbers of firms were finding an upgrade necessary due to investments in Web 2.0 technologies.

"We are seeing a lot of demand for the people working to sustain day-to-day operations and maintain the network infrastructure," she told Computer World UK.

"As companies work to connect more people and to use new technologies to open up their environments to everybody and everything, they need strong network skills to ensure they do it right and well."

The firm's research also highlighted that data management is of growing interest to IT managers as concerns about how well companies can cope in disaster situations continue to be voiced.

Recent research by BridgeHead Software found that disaster recovery was viewed as a major worry for almost six out of ten IT bosses in the UK and North America.