Lack Of Properly Trained Cloud Professionals Threaten Industry

John Omwamba shares a growing concern Data from job aggregators focused on the cloud computing market reveals that some areas stand out as the best places to find cloud computing jobs around the world. The irony is that employers in some of these areas are finding it difficult to find qualified people to fill the cloud positions which are apparently paying in the upswings of $100,000 plus, per year. While this is a salary to die for, the fact that no suitable candidates are showing up is raising questions on whether the academic pipeline is releasing enough techies for the evolving cloud space

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Dangerous Gap

Analysts have raised a serious alarm pointing to the danger of heading to a future where the market will experience a boom in cloud computing job opportunities with no properly qualified Cloud Professionals to fill them. Indeed a Microsoft sponsored IDC report shows that cloud jobs will shoot up by 26% every year through the next two years starting 2013. In 2012 alone, approximately 1.7 million jobs fled by a void of qualified skills to fill them. According to IDC, the turn of 2015 will witness a critical swell in IT jobs throughout the global scene, pushing to the 30 million mark.

Way behind

Sadly, IT professionals around the world are seemingly behind the cloud revolution and have not actually been equipped with skills matching what the cloud computing environment is demanding in order to succeed. There is a significant danger here because the consequences could include poor products coming out of cloud factories, not to mention security risks and system vulnerabilities that will threaten millions of businesses around the world who rely on cloud computing to perform their business functions.

Much of the frustration is driven from the approach businesses are taking towards cloud computing. Most businesses are increasingly recognizing the cloud as an integral part of their systems, with majority (half) terming it a priority area. Two thirds are making plans to implement relevant cloud solutions in their enterprises or are already going through the implementation process.

Certification and experience rate poorly

Businesses have acknowledged that while they would love to fill cloud positions in their companies, their fear is drawn from the reality on the ground which points to a scenario where those who claim to be good in the craft lack proper training, experience and credible certification. Recruiting companies are consistently creating systems to aggregate the best cloud jobs. The challenge still stands tall: that there are no qualified cloud professionals to touch these jobs.

Glaring Opportunity?

While the loneliness of a company searching for skills that cannot be found speaks volumes, there is a glaring opportunity that is lighting up somewhere in the uncovered clouds. This is no doubt the time for academic institutions and other stakeholders to seize the moment and introduce practical, full time cloud courses that will then bake the next cloud brains whom the industry needs so badly if the birth of revolutionary cloud products is to be sustained heading into the future.