Mark Thiele, executive vice president of data center technologies at Switch, a Las Vegas-based provider of data center and colocation facilities, says the organizations that are currently struggling the most with this skills shortage are the ones that are trying to support other companies and their cloud requirements. "All the hosting providers and small cloud startups and professional services organizations are cruising around the world trying to find anyone and everyone who can spell cloud," he says. "If you have successfully built and delivered any kind of cloud environment for someone and can put that on your resume, you can write your own ticket."

Indeed, without these cloud-savvy IT professionals, everyone suffers: the vendors, the consultants and their customers.

Look for Workers With Their Heads in the Cloud

CIOs need people--both internal staff and third-party providers--who can help them think through their cloud computing plans, develop business cases, determine what to move into the cloud, how to get it there, how to integrate it with on-premise systems, and how to secure it. The stakes for getting these plans right are high.

"The CIOs who will fail will do so because they've forced the cloud issue with a less than holistic view of their entire organization," says Thiele. "They will end up investing millions of dollars to put something in [at the behest of their CEOs] that becomes an anchor or an eyesore for the IT organization. There's no way to underestimate the potential for that risk."