Now is a good time to bring your cloud computing skills to the forefront.
Demand for cloud-ready IT workers will grow by 26 percent each year through 2015, according to a new Microsoft-sponsored IDC white paper. If that estimate proves true, there could be as many as 7 million cloud-related jobs in the world.
IT hiring managers, however, report that the biggest reason they failed to fill an existing 1.7 million open cloud-related positions in 2012 was that job seekers lacked the training and certification needed to work in a cloud-enabled world, according to an article on SciTechToday.com
The IT sector is seeing only modest growth of IT jobs. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average growth in IT employment sits between 1.1 percent and 2.7 percent per year through 2020. But within the larger IT sector, cloud jobs are gaining major momentum, and the IDC study suggests an urgent need to retrain existing IT professionals and encourage students to pursue cloud-related IT trainings and certifications.
“Unlike IT skill shortages in the past, solving this skills gap is extremely challenging, given that cloud brings a new set of skills which haven’t been needed in the past,” said Cushing Anderson, program vice-president at IDC. “There is no one-size-fits-all set of criteria for jobs in cloud computing. Therefore, training and certification is essential for preparing prospective job candidates to work in cloud-related jobs.”