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| Photo Credit VitruviusMedia |
“For a long period of time, IT was in that Wild West mode,” Greg Shields, partner and principal technologist with Concentrated Technology, recently told Jason Helmick of Interface Technical Training. “We were making up the rules as we go.” But companies and their IT leaders recognize that the best and most cost-effective solutions are those that may have been built and tested elsewhere. “You don’t grow your own food. You don’t raise your own cows anymore for meat. You go to the grocery store because somebody’s figured out that I can create this experience that is the grocery store, and I can do it at a lower cost, both in time and in dollar cost.”
The ability to identify and leverage resources –whether they come from the cloud or the company’s own data center — is becoming a key part of IT leaders’ responsibilities. The ability to introduce and develop valuable cloud computing engagements or infrastructure may even be the ticket to the corner office, as recently discussed in a study from CA Technologies.
A majority of 685 CIOs surveyed, 54%, believe that cloud computing has enabled them to spend more time on business strategy and innovation. Approximately 71% who have adopted cloud computing see their position as a viable path to pursue other management roles, compared to only 44% of non-cloud adopting CIOs.Part of the challenge, however, will still be being able to bring in the skills that will make it all work. As Chuck Hollis, VP of global marketing CTO for EMC Corporation, put it in his blog post late last year: “If you’re an IT leader, you’ve got an interesting challenge on your hands. You most likely don’t have the right portfolio of end-state roles, skills and processes. And you are probably lacking the people with skills who can lead the change from present state to future state.”
As a result of the shift to cloud, there is growing demand for professionals and managers that are more focused on business development than they are in application development. There will be greater opportunities for enterprise architects, and some offshoots will include cloud architects, cloud capacity planners, cloud service managers and business solutions consultants. Jobs being created may not always bear the term “cloud” in their titles, but cloud will form the core of their job descriptions.
Consider enterprise or business architects, for starters. This emerging discipline will help bridge the gap between IT and the business at a time when it could be extremely costly to have such a gap. “Business executive involvement will be especially helpful when outsourcing IT processes, such as cloud computing,” says Steve Nunn, COO of The Open Group and CEO of the Association of Enterprise Architects. Adding to Nunn’s thoughts, Kevin Daley of IBM and vice-chair of The Open Group Business Forum, says the enterprise architect will play a key role in bringing cloud into the business. “Cloud will help increase the speed of development and change. The business architect will be called upon to ensure the strategic relevancy of transformation in a repeatable fashion as cycle times and rollouts happen faster.”
EMC’s Hollis also pointed out that in many cases, managers and professionals working with cloud will be the “infrastructure enablers” – they will be charged with creating “the cloud-like environment that can support the next-gen processes and workflows that will be needed in this new environment. Implied in this work is re-orienting traditional and specific technology-oriented disciplines (e.g. storage, server, etc.) to the newworkflows and processes coming from the other side of the equation.”
Software engineers appear to be in a good spot as a result of the growth of cloud. Consider the fact that earlier in 2011, CareerCast determined software engineers to be the best job to have in today’s economy, thanks in no small part to the rise of cloud computing: “A proliferation of companies making applications for smartphones and tablets, along with the push to develop ‘cloud’ software hosted entirely online, has made the job market for software engineers broader and more diverse.”
A perusal through recent job openings provides a glimpse of the new emerging class of professionals and managers who will make IT happen in the years ahead. Here are just a few job titles and descriptions culled from recent help-wanted sites — note how much engagement there is with the business:
- Cloud Specialist: This professional will “provide expertise, design, engineering, troubleshooting of the cloud environment, collaborate with project managers and engineers to ensure cloud computing best practices are followed and applied.”
- Cloud Computing Architect: “Serves a critical role to drive the architect/design and implementation for [our] cloud-based solutions. Drive the architecture/design and implementation to migrate [our product] to a cloud-based PaaS and SaaS product. Interact effectively with CTO, product manager, and engineering managers to drive an optimized solution under known constraints. Mentor the team to adopt development and QA processes or best practices for cloud computing. Provide innovative idea or direction to [our] product.’
- Systems Engineer – Cloud Computing: “This individual will be a member of the system engineering team and will support an initiative to transition [federal agency] services to a cloud computing environment. The job will include developing the agency’s cloud computing strategy, cloud suitability assessment, and 3-5 year cloud computing plan for an environment that is comprised of programs that are safety critical (high RMA, security, and performance levels) and as well as administrative and support. Strong oral and written communication skills are necessary and individual who is self-motivated and eager to research and identify solutions critical to the public.”
- Lead Software Developer – Cloud Computing Focused: “This position is a great opportunity for someone who is motivated by building high business value applications and working with smaller teams to directly influence company growth. [We need] you to put your emerging cloud technologies skills to use designing and developing the next generation of software. Lead technological foray into cloud based platforms such as SalesForce.com, Azure, Google, & Amazon.”
- Cloud Architect – Infrastructure: “This is a technical role where you will be working with key clients and prospects helping them architect proper cloud solutions. Prime responsibilities include designing and architecting innovative and practical cloud based solution for clients; defining and recommending the cloud adoption roadmap for clients; interacting at the client’s CIO/CTO levels and their architecture teams.”
- Cloud Alliance Manager: “Focuses on the overall, ongoing management of [our] cloud computing service provider partnerships. This is done through the development and implementation of successful marketing programs unique to the specific cloud category, business units and
selling venues, supported by the development of competitive strategies relative to vendors, pricing, assortment and solutions.” - Virtualization & Cloud Computing Subject Matter Expert: “Will support cloud computing strategy and roadmap development from a mission and technical perspective including identification of potential obstacles and solutions regarding the use of cloud computing in a client environment.”
