Top tips: cloud IT skills for 2014

IT professionals have to work constantly to ensure that their skills are up to date. Where the recession has put a focus on cost out, no capex investment and fears around cloud implementation, it is being widely touted that 2014 will be the year where cloud computing finally joins the full IT portfolio, bringing cloud computing skills to the forefront for IT professionals.

A recent survey by UK recruitment company Robert Half Technology, cited cloud expertise as the most valuable skill for career advancement by IT directors. Here we look at five emerging skills that are increasingly important in the cloud world and are expected to be pertinent throughout 2014 and beyond.

Knowledge of open hybrid clouds
IT architectures are not homogeneous as they tend to be built, developed and evolved over a number of years, and the same levels of variety will apply to a cloud computing environment. IT pros need to understand how to build and extend their cloud computing infrastructure in a way that is open and appropriate for both on-premise and off-premise data. This is important because a hybrid cloud model enables the IT professional and enterprise to assess and differentiate between data that is high-risk and therefore should be housed on-premise, and data that is low-risk and can therefore be stored more cost effectively off-site.

Hybrid cloud offers flexibility while the open source model of an open hybrid cloud offers even greater levels of transparency and choice of cloud services. Additionally knowledge of different business models both of software vendors and cloud service providers will be higher in demand. Users can look into the IT stack and if a more cost-effective, feature rich or more appropriate service becomes available they can quickly and easily modify the stack.

Mobile app development and management expertise
The adoption of cloud services has, in many ways, encouraged the rise of mobile devices in the workplace and vice versa. The move to cloud computing is being driven by the need to provide services that can be accessed by any and all devices, be they laptops or smartphones. There is strong demand for professionals who can build and deliver apps that can reside in the cloud and reach employees, partners and customers anywhere and anytime.

Organizations need to think about what kind of mobile experience they are offering to customers via the cloud and how they would like to improve that down the line, while not overrunning their current budgets.

Data integration and analysis skills
Data is a prized asset in today’s economy and having relevant information which can be used as a foundation to business decisions requires consistency and timeliness. Although IT professionals may not be data scientists, they do need to investigate how data generated through cloud-based systems can mesh seamlessly with on-premises enterprise resource planning, data warehouse or other systems and work with the business side to make effective use of big data. Data professionals are in strong demand, and those who can design systems that can ingest big data from the cloud, or use the cloud to provide analytical environments will succeed.

Awareness of DevOps
The adoption of DevOps in the enterprise emerged from the bleak economic climate and a requirement for innovation and faster time-to-market cycles. A concept based on communication, collaboration and integration between software developers and IT professionals, DevOps as a practice was firstly adopted by start-ups and internet businesses that needed interdependence between software development and IT operations to help the business rapidly produce software products and services. This also is strongly an organisational challenge, which is helped by strong and positive internal communication.

Similarly, the scalability and flexibility of cloud computing means that the use of DevOps in conjunction with cloud infrastructures can speed up processes pushing new products to market.

Understanding of OpenStack
OpenStack is a collaboration of developers and cloud computing technologists which comprises a series of projects delivering various components for a cloud infrastructure solution. It is a key component required to build the kind of flexible, secure, interoperable cloud infrastructures that businesses are increasingly built upon and IT professionals must have a strong understanding of the technology required to make it so.
A recent IDG survey found that 84 percent of enterprises believe OpenStack will be a part of their future cloud infrastructure plans.

A key element of the OpenStack model is a requirement to examine how enterprises can ensure that virtualization growth does not outmatch business agility. More parts of the business are realizing the benefits that virtualisation brings, to the point where business units and managers are procuring their own public cloud services, rather than going through an IT manager. With IT not able to maintain a full view of virtualization and hence systems starting to run in the background that no one knows about, it poses a threat to security and to the overall efficiency of the IT architecture. Using OpenStack enterprises can scale up and down on their virtualization requirements as the business requests and enables enterprises to combine different cloud technologies, they can provide the best solution to individual parts of their business while also ensuring they work together and can be controlled in parallel.

IT professionals today must be aware of the advantages and the challenges brought by a full-scale implementation of cloud solutions. The explosion of big data and mobile devices in the workplace has forced enterprises to think about their cloud strategy. In doing so, enterprises are appreciating the server location flexibility and technology interoperability of the open hybrid cloud, based on OpenStack.

In order to maximise enterprise revenues whilst keeping a steady hand on security, IT professionals ought to be able to hold skills and knowledge in the areas that are increasingly becoming significant in the cloud sphere. Their help in exploring and adopting the right platforms for the ongoing explosion of data and devices, while containing cost and even increasing agility and flexibility will help IT individuals be in the top bucket for their CIOs.