Technology is moving faster than ever and I always have the urge to keep my skill up to date, below are the resources that helps me to stay sharp .
Online training platform is one of the best ways for IT professionals to update their skills efficiently. There are plenty of sites on the net, they are Udemy,Lynda, Edx and O'Reilly Safari. I like Pluralsight the most, it is the only platform that focuses on technology knowledge. It enables IT professionals of all areas including development, DevOps, IT security , IT Infrastructure, project management, business analyst to quickly acquire the latest and related skillsets. It costs only $299USD per annual.
Reading IT books/ebooks is another way to deepen your understanding in certain topics. There are a few IT publishers including APress, Wrox and Microsoft Press. I always select books from O'Reilly Media, it may not be the fastest publisher to release books on new topics but its books have the best quality. Their books are not like technical manuals, they are designs for human.
For example the Head First book series, they use an unorthodox, visually intensive, reader-involving combination of puzzles, jokes, nonstandard design and layout, with an engaging, conversational style to immerse readers in a given IT topic. It makes learning new skills easy and fun!. Head First Design Pattern is one of the best examples.
Pluralsight is the only platform that focuses on technology knowledge
When I want to know the latest IT Market Trend, I usually check out MIT Technology Review or Wired. If you wish to know the tech giants’ game plans, make sure you check out the annual Microsoft Build, Google I/O and Apple's WWDC developer events
Gartner Magic Quadrant research reports provide great insight into the capability and suitability of providers' IT products and services based on specific or customized use-cases. If you are considering to buy vendor software/hardware, make sure you take a look at the Gartner's report before first.
As developers, we are cautious when it comes to choosing the right programming language/framework to learn. We don't want to learn something that could obsolete in a few years. Stackoverflow Developer Survey provides great insight from a developer perspective.
It is important for IT professionals to stay sharp to design and develop tech-elegant solutions for users. Continuous learning is part of any 'real deal' IT Professionals - if you are not learning you are fading. Happy learning!