Job Security and Cloud Computing
April 6, 2012
For businesses of all sizes, deploying the cloud is a serious undertaking as it can change the shape of an IT budget and the IT personnel group needed moving forward. In the end, it means overall innovation in IT and a broader consideration of what skills are needed to compete today.
According to a recent Computerworld article, embracing cloud computing can be both a positive and negative force when it comes to looking at job security in IT today.
Generally for enterprises, it’s about cost savings because deploying the cloud means reducing the number of staff generally needed and therefore reducing budgets. The article cites a study by IT service provider CSC that claims 14 percent of companies reduced their IT staff head count after deploying a cloud strategy. Simply put, the cloud creates greater efficiencies, thereby reducing IT staff…
Or IT job security can simply–shift. In a post-cloud deployment, there can be new insights into what specific areas of the IT platform should be more of a priority. In fact, companies can even raise their IT budgets based on better performance but eliiminate jobs in one area to hire in another.
Even considering all of these aforementioned points, which don’t look promising for the way the job IT market stands today, the most realistic future for IT jobs under the cloud is actually positive. Millions of jobs will be needed as cloud computing deployments will create an increased need for IT staff to manage transition and keep track of new cloud systems and vendors.
Additionaly, no one can argue that it is a transformative technology that has been proven to make people in the IT field think outside of the box. As a result, the qualifications that companies are looking for will change and grow. Jobs that focus on vendor relationships and helping staff understand and integrate smoothly into a cloud environment will become more in demand as time goes on.
The job growth will occur all over the world, across all types of markets, and in a variety of businesses. According to an InformationWeek article, smaller companies will see many benefits as well. The article cites research by AMI Partners that states that smaller American businesses will spend more than $49 billion on cloud services in 2015. That is double the spending in that market last year. These businesses are demanding reliable broadband, thin applications, and just like enterprises, financial savings. Big or small, all companies look for cloud strategies to do one thing–fuel growth and profits. And they need the right IT staff with specific skills to make it all happen.
For some, the jury is still out as to whether there a job boom or bust following the decision to deploy a cloud infrastructure, but the reality is that deploying the cloud properly means innovation, which leads to growth, which leads to job creation–especially in the critical IT segment of a company. One thing is for sure, the traditional roles of managing software and hardware are changing and all business need to flexible to compete in today’s new IT clouded landscape.