Many organizations that are either new to the cloud or rapidly scaling cloud usage, quickly realize that the technical skills and operational frameworks of the past don’t always apply to the nuances of managing a cloud environment. Gartner recently published a report that addresses the primary skills today’s infrastructure and operations (I&O) teams will need to maximize the full potential of public cloud infrastructure and platform services (CIPS).
Many organizations that are either new to the cloud or rapidly scaling cloud usage, quickly realize that the technical skills and operational frameworks of the past don’t always apply to the nuances of managing a cloud environment. In fact, Gartner recently published a report that states, “Through 2022, traditional I&O skills will be insufficient for 60% of the operational tasks for which I&O leaders are responsible.”
In the report, Gartner addresses the key challenges that today’s infrastructure and operations (I&O) leaders face, along with the skills their teams will need to maximize the full potential of public cloud infrastructure and platform services (CIPS). Read our key takeaways below and click here to download your own copy of the complete report.
The modern cloud infrastructure and operations skills gap
When asked about the biggest challenges their teams will face over the next 12 months, the top response among I&O leaders was “insufficient skills and resources,” according to Gartner.
*This graphic was published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research document and should be evaluated in the context of the entire document. The Gartner document is available upon request by following this link.
This skills gap is a key inhibiting factor for organizations looking to take advantage of cloud platforms and services, and is an issue that I&O leaders need to address urgently in order to be successful.
What are the skills I&O teams need to be successful in the cloud?
Not all skills are considered equal. Below is a prioritized list of the technical and cultural skills required to use public cloud IaaS successfully, according to Gartner.
Critical priority
- Continous configuration automation (CCA)
- Scripting and integrating REST APIs
- Governance and security administration (GSA)
- Cloud cost management and optimization
- Backup, recovery, and high availability
- Kubernetes, Docker, containers and serverless computing
High priority
- Understanding distributed systems
- Continuous integration (CI) / continuous deployment (CD)
- Application performance monitoring (APM)
- Virtual network administration
Moderate priority
- Developing applications with key/value
- Managed cloud databases
Download your copy of the Gartner report to see the complete breakdown of skills, including further explanation of what each skill entails and relevant products and services associated with each.
How should I&O leaders address the cloud skills gap?
As a first step, take inventory of your teams’ skills against the above list to see where to prioritize your efforts. From there, you can consider the following actions:
- Promote from within: Set up development and growth plans for employees in technical support roles to avoid turnover and cultivate strong technical teams.
- Pair programming and self-paced learning: Pair more experienced and less experienced employees together on projects to enable one-on-one training. Gartner recommends to, “Combine pair programming with self-paced learning programs, such as those offered by Pluralsight, Udacity and Coursera, to serve as reinforcements of each other.”
- Take advantage of training programs: Take advantage of the training and certification programs offered by Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) and third parties, which focus on enabling administrators and software developers in key functional areas.
- Learn by deploying and collaborating: Use the cloud, experiment with new deployments and operations in testing environments, and encourage teams to share lessons learned along the way.
Leverage cloud managed service providers and solutions
In addition to the actions mentioned above, leaders should consider leveraging cloud managed service providers (MSPs) and cloud management solutions, which can help provide the skills, experience, process maturity, and toolsets needed to accelerate and achieve business goals in the cloud.
Thousands of organizations around the world depend on the CloudHealth portfolio to support their current and future business goals. CloudHealth gives you the ability to optimize, govern, and secure even the largest and most complex multi-cloud environments. You can learn more in our solution brief here, or feel free to get in touch with our team directly.
Gartner, The Cloud Infrastructure and Platform Services Skills I&O Teams Require for the Future, Raj Bala, Ross Winser, 2 September 2020
