Staffing the Cloud with Skilled Employees

As more and more IT services get shifted to the cloud, the demand for talent becomes an increasingly important issue. In an article for CIO, Meredith Levinson describes the challenges facing CIOs in finding employees. Levinson cites data from Wanted Analytics that found from February 2011 to 2012 there was a 99 percent increase in job ads for IT professionals requiring cloud computing skills.

Lack of skilled staff to support cloud services can result in some major issues and setbacks. Writes Levinson:

“CIOs need people—both internal staff and third-party providers—who can help them think through their cloud computing plans, develop business cases, determine what to move into the cloud, how to get it there, how to integrate it with on-premise systems, and how to secure it. The stakes for getting these plans right are high.”

Rapid adoption and lack of skilled staff has made a large impact on the role of third-party vendors in the cloud landscape. B2B collaboration is growing as vendors step in to help fill the void in skilled staff. In some cases, cloud savvy CIOs are working closely with vendors to build customized services that are functional and secure components of a core infrastructure.

This intimacy requires a close and collaborative relationship, and CIOs must identify and engage with cloud vendors who are able to best meet their needs and standards.