The insufficiencies in cloud skills continue to torment companies across industries, particularly since the onset of the pandemic that accelerated mass cloud adoption. A growing number of companies are now emphasizing building cloud talent to weather this tide of skills shortage.

The increase in cloud adoption by global enterprises is disrupting the conventional IT workforce of companies and making their age-old skills obsolete. While the maximum onus is on talent management teams and employees, individuals can also chalk out a comprehensive training pathway to transition smoothly to this in-demand role.

Before addressing the must-haves of a cloud developer, we walk you through some valuable insights that are driving several key players to adopt this technological shift.

What’s driving the world to the Cloud?: Decoding the role in numbers

It is not an exaggeration to say that COVID-19 has pushed cloud adoption to the tipping point. Companies across industries are inching towards a complete cloud adoption by migrating their development and data storage, hosting applications, deploying cloud solutions, or building cloud-native services.

While much has been said about the power of cloud technology, the following insights will give you the technology’s exponential growth in recent years.

• About 70% of enterprise infrastructure is now cloud-based.
• The global Cloud computing services market is predicted to be worth USD 830 Bn in 2026, growing at a CAGR of 17.5%.
• A study finding revealed that 70% of employers had invested time in building new products and features since the adoption of the cloud into the business.

These statistics clearly signify that cloud computing is growing in value and opening a realm of possibilities to both employees and employers. Having discussed the numbers above, we now explore the pathways to becoming a Cloud Developer.

Steps to Jump-Start Career as a Cloud Developer

Brush-up on a programming language

One of the most basic (and no-brainer) prerequisites to have when starting a career in cloud computing has to be the command over a particular programming language. Various programming languages are used in creating cloud-driven applications, including Java C++, Python, PHP, JavaScript, or PHP.

To have a successful and long-running career in this domain, choose one from the aforementioned languages and harness its power.

Hands-on with Cloud Development Platform

Once you have adapted to one programming language fluently, it’s time to get a real-time experience with a cloud development platform.

There are plenty of players in the market to help first-timers learn and master the art of developing applications on a cloud platform. The likes of Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, and Microsoft’s Azure are the prominent subscription-based models that provide free-of-cost usage of their respective cloud platforms.

Besides getting hands-on experience and honing their craft, individuals can also arm themselves with other essential cloud tools by leveraging the help from any of the above platforms.

Getting certified

The background qualifications that most in the cloud computing domain have been either IT or Computer Science. While having a degree from either of these lays a good foundation for your cloud developer career, having a certificate indicates that you have the required expertise in using cloud services and tools.

As we mentioned earlier, the three most notable public cloud providers (AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud) help the naive cloud talents in building a strong career in this domain. While having platform-specific skillsets is considered a huge boon, multi-cloud skills are also in demand as more employers jump on the cloud computing bandwagon.

As businesses adopt the cloud, new challenges will emerge, demanding the need to upskill their workforce. With the basics of quickly becoming a Cloud Developer covered in the above steps, we must now understand the role of organizations and talent management teams in tightening the cloud skills gap.

Why Reskilling is the quickest way to build cloud talent for organizations

As traditional IT workflows continue being replaced by cloud processes, for which the availability of talent is in short supply, talent management teams must embrace reskilling to address this widening cloud skills gap.

AI-driven talent intelligence platforms have become the most sought-after solutions to counter the widening demand-supply gap in today’s talent ecosystem. Following is a simple step-by-step at how talent intelligence platform like Draup helps in formulating a reskilling pathway for Cloud talent:

• Identifying disrupted job roles: Start with identifying disrupted job roles that require a shift to the cloud.
• Role Mapping: After identifying the job roles facing disruption, map it to the Cloud Computing job role using the talent intelligence platform. For example, turning a Database Administrator into a Cloud DevOps Analyst requires about 3-4 months following specific L&D programs. This whitepaper extensively discusses a plain sailing transition from a disrupted IT job role into Cloud Migration Specialist.
• Skill gaps analysis & course identification: Lastly, choose suitable L&D programs for a seamless transition from the disputed role to an in-demand role. By leveraging the help of Draup’s proprietary Reskilling Navigator tools, mapping out skill gaps with the suitable courses to fill them becomes as easy as a few clicks.

Understanding that reskilling for cloud talent can be a slow and tumultuous journey, integrating in-demand technologies like Artificial intelligence will be a massive game-changer. While the technology already has several successful use cases, its use in reskilling for cloud talent will help talent management teams build a robust cloud workforce.

With the world adjusting to a hybrid workplace, the dependence on cloud technology continues to grow. While the transition to the cloud is undoubtedly not a cakewalk in the post-pandemic era, AI-powered talent intelligence platforms like Draup have made the reskilling process more accessible with their data-backed insights.

This analytical-driven platform assists talent management teams with insights into the talent market and shares reskilling pathways ideal for managing talent faster and driving company-wide initiatives to reskill or hire quality talent.