Shifting to the Cloud: IT Still Has a Job to Do, Needs to Sharpen Skills

While moving IT off-premise to the cloud is becoming more mainstream, it still comes with misgivings about whether doing so could jeopardize the job security of IT staff.

The notion that IT staff will become null and void after moving to the cloud is a common misconception, according to Greg Pierce, cloud strategy officer at Tribridge, who says IT jobs won’t be threatened, but IT staff does need to sharpen other skills if they are to remain successful in their field.

In fact, a recent CompTIA (News - Alert) survey found that only 7 percent of companies consider the skills possessed by their IT staffs to be exactly where they want them to be.

“They need to consider the move to the cloud as a challenge, embracing the expansion of their skill set,” Pierce said in a recent interview with Computerworld. “Their day-to-day tasks will definitely morph, but if the IT employees can remain open to adapting their skills, they are going to be far more valuable to the organization and less likely to be phased out.”

Resisting the cloud because of job insecurity is a mistake, according to Pierce, who says IT decision makers need to take a proactive approach to cloud adoption so that they are an integral part of the decision-making process.

“It’s not a matter of if companies are going to the cloud, but rather when,” Pierce said.

In fact, cloud computing is not only revolutionizing the IT industry, it is reinvigorating job growth in the United States, TechZone360 reported. More than 5,000 cloud computing job ads were posted online in the U.S. in February, according to the latest figures from Wanted Analytics.

Hiring demand for cloud skills has grown significantly, up 92 percent versus February 2011 and 400 percent compared to the same time in 2010, the researcher said.

Spending on public and private IT cloud services will generate nearly 14 million jobs worldwide from 2011 to 2015, according to research commissioned by Microsoft (News - Alert), which was conducted by analyst firm IDC.

“The cloud is going to have a huge impact on job creation,” said Susan Hauser, Microsoft corporate vice president of the Worldwide Enterprise and Partner Group. “It’s a transformative technology that will drive down costs, spur innovation, and open up new jobs and skillsets across the globe.”