Career Outlook 2020: IT to offer more jobs based on Multi-Cloud

By Pratap V. Simha

Enterprises, worldwide, are fast embracing Cloud as the key enabler to meet their business priorities. International Data Corporation (IDC), as part of its Worldwide Cloud Predictions for 2020 and beyond says with 95% of organizations planning to increase their cloud spend in the coming 12 months, the adoption of cloud technologies is pertinent for enterprises of all sizes.

Cloud technologies have matured significantly over the years and “one-cloud-fits-all” approach does not work anymore. Multi-cloud strategy has become the new trend and it is here to stay. With rapid adoption of cloud computing, job profiles such as Cloud Architect, Cloud Software Engineer and Cloud Infrastructure Engineer are predicted to be in great demand. Having said this, Cloud DevOps, Cloud Security, Network optimization for Cloud, will also play a pivotal role in effective cloud computing and are seeing a massive uptick in job openings.

Careers in Multi-Cloud are in three broad categories:

Category 1 : Those who build the Cloud itself

Category 2 : Those who build applications using the Cloud

Category 3 : Those who ensure that the Cloud and applications on Cloud are fast, secure and robust

The designations for all three categories look the same, viz., Cloud Architect, Cloud Engineer etc. But the exact role and key skills vary. Let’s see how and why…

Engineers working deep in the product development teams of GCP at Google, AWS at Amazon and Azure at Microsoft belong to Category 1. They write operating systems, create algorithms using Python, Go, Java, C++, create new virtualization and hypervisor paradigms, and optimize database engines for Cloud and much more. They are busy creating the bedrock of the popular cloud platforms.

Coders working at e-commerce companies, video streaming companies such as Netflix, fintech companies such as PayPal etc., are busy building the most innovative applications which impact life of every individual on the planet. More often than ever, these applications are built on top of Cloud platforms such as GCP, AWS, Azure or the like. These coders belong to Category 2. They are experts at NodeJS, Java, React, Kotlin or Swift and they have spent several hundred hours in learning the tips and tricks of leveraging the powerful offerings of the Cloud.

Network engineers help create low latency solutions for video conferencing. Cyber security engineers ensure that banking and fintech applications built on Cloud are safe and secure. Cloud DevOps engineers help to optimize the build-test-deploy-monitor cycle and ensure that the Cloud world has 100% uptime. These and many other skilled engineers belong to Category 3

Seasoned software professionals who have been working on traditional technology stacks are rapidly reskilling themselves with advanced concepts in Cloud engineering. While cloud certifications have a value, one must look beyond certifications and look at it as a starting point of their Cloud journey.

At TechChefs, in 2016, hardly 20% of the new hiring was Cloud centric. Today in 2020, almost 100% of the new hires at TechChefs are for Cloud roles. We are not alone in this trend. This trend is true case for technology companies across the world. COVID-19 has further accelerated the adoption of Cloud and we are seeing a massive demand for Virtual Desktops. This pandemic has also rapidly proliferated new business models such Virtual Development Centres (VDCs) which are powered by the Cloud.

To sum up: Multi Cloud computing is here to stay and cloud centric roles in IT and Tech are on the rise with each passing day.

(Pratap V. Simha is Cofounder and CTO of TechChefs)