Cloud Computing: New domain, new skills
Today more companies are moving into cloud computing to reduce costs by avoid spending on information technology (IT) components or upgrading their own infrastructure. The transition to cloud computing will have a major impact on many IT jobs but it also creates new positions and new opportunities.
IT workers will find many opportunities in providing technical services as software is becoming a service rather than just a product. Companies will need more IT people who understand services offered by cloud computing company to perform integration works. These people will manage activities such as IT integration strategy, Supply management, Network security, Data management, and Data analytics etc. It means that IT workers must understand the overall business context, what the company gets from cloud computing, and how to use the cloud-based tools to develop IT solution to support business strategy. IT workers must be able to facilitate the effective use of cloud technology as well as monitor the amount of services that cloud computing vendors provide. This requires a change in thinking and how IT workers are trained to transition from develop software products to manage software services. With proper training in Information System management (ISM), IT workers will find a lot of new opportunities to use their IT skills to support business functions.
Many IT jobs will evolve into new roles that focusing more on the coordinating between business and technology. These functions previously conducted separately by IT workers and business workers and the two groups often do not collaborate well. Business workers consider IT as a support function and gives requirements to IT group and IT workers implement what business requests. However, with Cloud computing, these roles will be merged. Since most IT functions are being provided by external Cloud computing vendors. IT workers are no longer developing software products or tools but manage the functions provided by Cloud computing vendors.
In the past, technical skills such as programming, testing are a major part of the training of IT workers but as software is changing into a service, soft-skills are becoming more important. IT workers must have good communication skills tohandle customers concerns by phone. Because they are unable to see the customer face to face, it is important they be skilled in telecommunication and knows how to use these tools properly. IT workers who work as customer service representatives or Help desks representatives must be good listeners and be able to write concise and clear customers’ requests and answer them via emails. IT workers also need to have Problem solving skills because they must diagnose problems, overcome technical issues and be able to answer complicated questions. This makes it very important to be skilled in quick, logical problem solving. Since most of them use computers to retrieve customers’ folders or company information. They must be quick to use computers to search, retrieve, update all information and able to use company’s databases. Customers are often upset when they contact customer service. This makes it very important that representatives are able to remain calm, courteous and respectful at all times. Because soft-skills are often NOT taught in college, IT students must make every attempt to learn them as they are important skills to have.
The shift toward cloud computing is prompting so much innovation that new companies are emerging all the time. Within a short time, there are hundreds of cloud companies have been created in the Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) categories, even though the cloud computing industry is still very early in its evolution. Many of the new cloud firms are growing rapidly and they are hiring massive number of IT workers from the Information System Management (ISM) area. Companies like Google, Amazon, VMware, IBM, Dell, HP, EMC, Microsoft etc. are scanning the world for more IT skilled workers as for this new domain, there is a critical shortage of skilled IT workers.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
