The Cloud Computing Skills Shortage

Majestic Realty's BPOS migration illustrates many of the challenges CIOs face as they move infrastructure and applications to the cloud. The biggest hurdle of them all--and the one that menaces cloud deployments the most--is the lack of IT professionals who are familiar with cloud offerings and know how to implement them.

Across the IT industry, CIOs, technology vendors and consultants agree that there is a serious shortage of cloud computing skills that threatens to hamper adoption. Whether it's software engineers who know how to develop applications for the cloud, resource planners who can estimate an enterprise's need for computing capacity, architects who can integrate services from different cloud vendors, or administrators who understand how to configure and support cloud-based services, a wide range of cloud-related skills are in great demand, and companies can't leverage the benefits of cloud computing without them.

To illustrate the scope of the skills shortage, a recent from Wanted Analytics, a provider of recruiting data, quantifies that the demand for cloud skills far outstrips supply. The company counted more than 3,400 job ads for IT professionals that required cloud computing skills in February 2012, a 99 percent increase over February 2011.

"People who understand cloud operations and how to deploy cloud solutions are really sought after right now," says Greg Pierce, cloud strategy officer with consultancy TriBridge. "Talent is very difficult to find and very expensive."