IT Jobs: 6 Essential Skills For The Cloud Era

Want to stay relevant in the cloud era's rapidly changing IT job market? Take this expert advice.

A recent Microsoft study predicts that nearly 14 million new jobs will be created worldwide by 2015 as a result of growing cloud computing adoption. Whether you believe that number or not, (and InformationWeek's Rob Preston says it's clearly inflated,) there's no doubt that cloud is reshaping the IT department as we know it.

While cloud computing promises to stimulate the job market, it could be a buzz kill for your marketability as an IT professional. "There's no question cloud computing is generating a whole new breed of job seeker," says Jeff Kaplan, founder and managing director of THINKstrategies, an IT strategic consulting firm. "What this new world is about is fundamentally different than the old IT world."

Kaplan suggests the following six ways to keep your feet firmly planted in an IT career as more and more companies adopt cloud computing models.

1. Sharpen your assessment skills.
The first step in reaching for the cloud is identifying the right cloud computing vendor. It's a tricky task that calls for careful assessment of a provider's products and services. "In the old IT world, IT professionals were the folks who rolled out the technology and made it work within their own unique environments," says Kaplan. "However, in this brave new world, they're now evaluating third-party services to determine whether they will fit a company's business needs."

2. Act as a systems integrator.
Just because you've reached for the cloud doesn't mean there isn't any internal tweaking to be done. "Most organizations have legacy systems and software already installed in-house," says Kaplan. "As a result, IT people will still be required to see how these new cloud resources will integrate with those existing systems, software, and data sources." Knowing how to integrate new cloud capabilities with existing resources and being able to move data around are invaluable skills in today's cloud landscape, according to Kaplan.

To read the entire original article, visit InformationWeek.