The 8 Most Important Skills Needed for Cloud Computing Today

The constant promise we hear about cloud computing is that is supposed to lift many of the burdens of information technology management away from companies, and out to some service provider. However, the promise is always a lot sweeter than the reality. And that reality is that new types of skills are required to successfully manage today’s cloud environments.

For one, many clouds are internal to organizations, developed, hosted and managed by IT or another part of the enterprise – thus requiring many of the same skills that an Amazon Web Services or IBM need to keep their offerings going.

Second, for those organizations adopting much of their IT power from third-party providers, there is still a need — or even greater need — for people who know what services to pick, can negotiate service level agreements, and can integrate those off-site offerings with on-site data and operations.

So, either way, cloud computing calls for a range of new skills. Here are the eight essential skills needed:

Business and financial skills
Technical skills
Enterprise architecture and business needs analysis
Project management skills
Contract and vendor negotiation
Security and compliance
Data integration and analysis skills
Mobile app development and management

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