The Top In-demand cloud skills for 2020

The demand for cloud computing skills is on the rise as more and more companies are adopting cloud services. According to Forbes^[1], the worldwide spend on cloud computing services will grow at a 19.4% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from nearly $70B in 2015 to more than $141B in 2019. And with that growth, comes the demand for the cloud professionals who will manage the technology. In fact, our clients that rely on us for employees with cloud experience are coming to us with more and more cloud requirements to fill on what seems like a daily basis. And the pace isn’t slowing.

Although we are seeing an increase across the board in cloud jobs, there are certain areas that are clearly in high demand. These will be the must have skills for 2020. 

Cloud Security

In the early days, many companies were concerned about hosting their data in the cloud. But today, as cloud security has improved, there is more confidence in cloud data being safe and secure. Cloud security is a shared responsibility between the cloud providers and the businesses using them. This brings about the need for cloud professionals with specialization in cloud security skills. Cloud providers and organizations have a significant need for professionals who understand cloud security and can leverage the cloud security tools offered by organizations like Microsoft and AWS to name a few. This need will only increase in 2020. The CCSP (Certified Cloud Security Professional) certifications are in demand and can open up a wide range of career opportunities.

Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence (AI)

The 2020 forecast for machine learning and AI related to cloud computing is showing a significant increase. We are seeing it as well from our clients. The global machine learning market is expected to grow from $1.41B in 2017 to $8.81B by 2022, a 44.1% compound annual growth rate (CAGR). Factors contributing to the market’s global rapid growth include new technologies that excel at data aggregation, integration and analysis, and more scalable cloud platforms^[2].

Over the last few years, cloud vendors have developed and expanded their set of tools and services that enable organizations to gain the benefits of machine learning and AI in the cloud. Data science courses have been initiated by Microsoft that include Professional Program for Data Science, MCSA Machine Learning^[3] and MCSE: Data Management & Analytics certification. This training can help cloud professionals leverage the machine learning and AI capabilities of the cloud well into 2020 and beyond.

Cloud Migration and Deployment within Multi-Cloud Environments

Many companies are looking to move multiple applications to the cloud. At Akraya, we have seen a significant increase in clients looking for employees who are able to contribute to their cloud migration efforts. This increase lines up with the rise reported by the IDC as well. 

Cloud migration has its set of risks and is not an easy process. Improper migration processes often lead to business downtime and data vulnerability. To add to the challenges, businesses worldwide continue to struggle with the lack of skilled resources to help accomplish these activities. So if you are a cloud professional, or someone looking to get into cloud computing, you will want to consider gaining knowledge across multiple cloud platforms, especially AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.

Serverless Architecture

Underlying cloud server infrastructure has to be managed by cloud developers within a server-based architecture.  However, today’s cloud consists of industry standard technologies and programming languages that help in moving serverless applications from one cloud vendor to another. Services built are easier to scale up and apply patches as well. There are many courses in serverless application development. For example, these Lambda tutorials are a great place to learn the AWS serverless platform. 

Some other areas where we are seeing an increased demand that will carry into 2020, include: 

Database Skills

Storing, managing, and accessing data stored in the cloud will always be a vital part of any cloud based strategy.  Database languages like SQL, MySQL, MongoDB, and Hadoop are the key ones to know.

Programming Languages

On the programming side, Perl, Python, and Ruby have gained prominence in the cloud ecosystem along with traditional languages like PHP, Java, and .NET.

Linux Certification

Skills to design, architect, build, administer, and maintain Linux servers in a cloud environment are also scaling up. 

DevOps

DevOps automates moving code from development to production while automating tasks such as monitoring, testing, integration, and deployment. DevOps is focused on continuous development, integration, and deployment, which directly benefits the SaaS applications that thrive on cloud computing.