Lack of cloud skills and training begin to take a toll

According to a recent report by cloud and datcenter vendor Rackspace, “Nearly three quarters of IT decision-makers (71 percent) believe their organizations have lost revenue due to a lack of cloud expertise. On average, this accounts for 5 percent of total global revenue, or $258,188,279 per organization.”

That’s a pretty good hunk of cheddar! This is a real issue and it’s starting to get noticed by enterprises leadership, and even by the stockholders.

Truth be told, these sorts of opportunity costs are rarely considered. Think of the cost of using subpar data analytics, substandard networks, even bad automation itself.  There is always a difference between what enterprises do and what they should do to maximize revenue. Or, more to this case, what they can’t do because their staff lacks the skills.

While my personal experiences are not exact metrics, I’ve been getting about four requests per week from enterprises that want a training plan, skilled people, or me.  This was a once-a-month occurrence just two years ago.

Nobody in these organizations saw this kind of demand coming, and when lost-revenue numbers are put next to not being able to fill this demand, the enterprises begin to react. Although some enterprises were proactive with cloud computing skills acquisition, most have beenreactive and now in a panic, with 25 to 50 open positions chasing one qualified candidate.

There’s not much you can do about the shortage, or its impact to the bottom line.  Years ago, I was one of many voices that urged Global 2000 companies to begin training and hiring for cloud computing. On the other hand, having consulted with that Global 2000, I do understand the many priorities that businesses have to consider and why preparing for emerging trends tends to get deferred for later.

But my advice today is the same as it was years ago: Get a training plan in place ASAP to coach the current IT staffers on cloud computing technology, from specific technology to general configuration and architectural concepts. Hire when an opportunity presents itself, but don’t lower standards just to put butts in seats and fill positions.