More organisations are looking to hire server-based IT staff; but finding employees who can work across both traditional servers and converged infrastructure is increasingly tough.

That is the verdict of analyst firm 451 Research in its latest Voice of the Enterprise study, which finds that for two thirds of the more than 500 firms surveyed, recruiting for roles across both sectors is difficult. A similar number (67%) say the primary driver for more server-related employees is business growth, with 42% citing IT organisational changes as key.

Naturally, the continued interest in staff with specialisms in traditional servers means organisations aren’t quite ready to put all their eggs in the public cloud basket. Concerns continue over the long term costs of using public cloud, with some IT managers polled admitting they are even expanding their on-premises servers and converged infrastructure to support certain requirements.

“Most IT managers are closely scrutinising their deployment options instead of blindly following the pack to IaaS and other off-premises cloud services,” said Christian Perry, research manager and report lead analyst. “When determining the optimal mix of on- and off-premises compute resources, there is no doubt this is hampered by the availability of specialist skills and regional availability.

“Whether organisations will realise their expected server staff expansion remains to be seen due to hiring difficulties,” added Perry.

This said, 451 does agree that the worldwide pool of full time employees dedicated to server administration will decline. It’s a classic catch-22; almost seven in 10 (69%) said current candidates lack skills and experience in this department, while available talent is shrinking due to a lack of candidates by region and high salaries putting employers off.

As this publication has previously reported, if you can find the right role at the right company, then a lucrative opportunity awaits. According to figures from PayScale, AT&T, General Electric and Oracle are the likeliest to pay the most for experienced cloud computing professionals.

You can find out more about the report here (registration required).