2/7/14 10 Skills IT Pros Need for Cloud Computing | The Path To Open Hybrid Cloud

www.buildyourbestcloud.com/147/10-skills-it-pros-need-cloud-computing 1/4
The Path To Open
Hybrid Cloud
Sign Up Free
Bloggers Polls Resources Log In
OpenStack: The key to building an open hybrid cloud
Sponsored by
Debra Donston-Miller, November 26, 2013 25 Comments
10 Skills IT Pros Need for Cloud
Computing
5 | Like this post
IT professionals have to work constantly to ensure that their skills are up to date.
Today, IT pros must guarantee that their cloud-focused skills are resume-ready. And
just what are those skills? According to a Forbes.com blog post by contributor Joe
McKendrick, there are eight key skills. To those, I add two more.
1. Business and financial skills
The intersection of business and technology is always an overarching concern, but it
is especially so when it comes to cloud-based computing.
2. Technical skills
With the cloud, organizations can streamline their IT resources, offloading much of
day-to-day systems and application management. But that doesnt mean IT
abdicates all responsibility. Theres a need for language skills to build applications
that can run quickly on the Internet.
3. Enterprise architecture and business needs analysis
Cloud computing requires that IT pros cross disciplines, especially where service-
oriented architecture comes into play.
4. Project management skills
Organizations must not let the flexibility of the cloud lead to missed deadlines or
amorphous goals. That could negate the cloud cost advantage.
5. Contract and vendor negotiation skills
To deal with service-level agreementsand the problems involved when those
SLAs are breachedIT pros need experience with contract and vendor
Resources View All Resources
Openstack: The Platform of Choice
This infographic is the outcome of an IDG Connect
survey of 200 US enterprise decision makers that
includes adoption plans...
Enterprise Grade Management for Open Stack
In this technical detail, we describe how CloudForms
offers you a unified management framework with
advanced life cycle...
Video: Your IT Journey to the Cloud
Red Hat Cloud Infrastructure enables your
organization to move from traditional to cloud
enabled workload models, and to IT...
Whitepaper: Cloud infrastructure for the Real World
Cloud adoption is an evolutionary process that has
been leading to hybrid cloudspecifically, open
hybrid clouds that...
Whitepaper: OpenStack and Red Hat: IDC White
paper
OpenStack is an open source cloud system software
project that has broad participation from the IT
Industry. In this IDC...
Most Commented on
Community
POLL
Are you using any public cloud
services within your organization?
Yes
No
Planning to within the next 12-18 months
Submit
2/7/14 10 Skills IT Pros Need for Cloud Computing | The Path To Open Hybrid Cloud
www.buildyourbestcloud.com/147/10-skills-it-pros-need-cloud-computing 2/4
negotiations.
6. Security and compliance
IT professionals dealing with the cloud must have a firm grasp of security protocols
and the regulatory mandates related to their industries, both within and without the
United States.
7. Data integration and analysis skills
IT pros may not be data scientists, but to take advantage of big data, they do need to
help data scientists hook up big data, internal ERP, data warehouse and other data
systems, and work with the business side to make effective use of big data.
8. Mobile app development and management
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.
As enterprise cloud computing evolves, it is important to add two more skills to the
list:
9. Knowledge of open hybrid clouds
IT is not homogeneous, and neither should your cloud computing model be. IT pros
need to understand how to build and extend their companies cloud computing
infrastructure in a way that is open.
10. Understanding of OpenStack
In order to build the kind of flexible, secure, interoperable cloud infrastructure
mentioned above, IT pros must have a strong understanding of the technology
required to make it so. OpenStack is a key component. OpenStack, a collaboration
of developers and cloud computing technologists, comprises a series of projects
delivering various components for a cloud infrastructure solution.
What other skills do IT professionals need to have in order to enable their
organizations to successfully tap into the benefits of cloud computing? Are there any
IT skills that the cloud is making obsolete? We welcome your insight in the
comments section.
Debra Donston-Miller
View all contributions by Debra Donston-Miller
Tags: cloud IaaS OpenStack PaaS
Like us on Facebook
2/7/14 10 Skills IT Pros Need for Cloud Computing | The Path To Open Hybrid Cloud
www.buildyourbestcloud.com/147/10-skills-it-pros-need-cloud-computing 3/4
PREVIOUS:
Cloud Goals: Agility Tops Cost
NEXT:
Cloud 101 - Glossary of the Cloud
4 Comments
8 Comments
8 Comments
32 Comments
17 Comments
Recent posts by Debra
5 Things to Look for in an OpenStack Implementation
September 10, 2013
Key Cloud Platform Criterion: Partner Ecosystem
September 24, 2013
Why Companies Need An Open Mind About OpenStack
September 26, 2013
How Hybrid Clouds Upend Cloud Security Concerns
October 23, 2013
Cloud Spending To Climb in 2014
December 13, 2013
evanschuman Ahhhhh, I remember the days tracking that story. The issue
related to incorrect realtime inventory stats. (Note: If anyone ever tries to sell you
realtime inventory, it's helpful to know that it doesn't exist. At best, it's a matter of
how little delay they experience. No one delivers zero delay.) ...
petebart A new wrinkle for this discussion: news reports now tie the Target data
breach to network credentials obtained from an HVAC contractor who was tied into
Target's network. After much speculation that they were monitoring IP embedded
devices, the company issued a statement...
disqus_xdrq9EaNKo Evan, on Point 3, many of these attacks are automated,
so the fact that the Phil's House of Pizza is not that rich a target doesn't really
matter. It's a volume game, and 100 SMBs can be just as lucrative, and much easier
to penetrate, than one enterprise. but you will never read about the SMB hacks...
browndamon Exactly. It's important to acknowledge that the financial needs and
resources are different between SMBs and large enterprises, so their approaches to
the cloud will be different, too.
...
Top Discussions on Community
Why the 2013 Holiday Season Is One of IaaS' Biggest Challenges Yet
68 comments 2 weeks ago
A Closer Look at the Internet of Things
65 comments 5 hours ago
Is the Hybrid Cloud Getting Ready for the Enterprise?
52 comments 2 weeks ago
Amazon Oversimplifies the Purpose of Private Clouds in its Haste to Move
You to the Public Cloud
51 comments 1 week ago
Time for RaaS, man!
40 comments 0 seconds ago
Top Commenters
petebart
204 comments
genedelibero
187 comments
disqus_xdrq9EaNKo
186 comments
joelshore
165 comments
dwightbdavis
152 comments
bethbacheldor
149 comments
2/7/14 10 Skills IT Pros Need for Cloud Computing | The Path To Open Hybrid Cloud
www.buildyourbestcloud.com/147/10-skills-it-pros-need-cloud-computing 4/4
About us Contact us Sign Up Free
Copyright 2014 IDG Enterprise