Bridging the cloud skills gap: How a simple solution can secure business growth

When it comes to the immense potential of the public cloud, the sky is truly the limit. Yet, while adopting a cloud architecture offers a vast range of benefits that can improve efficiency, security, and reliability, the in-house management of these architectures is less straightforward than it appears.

Today, more and more IT leaders are finding themselves trapped in a technological bottleneck: their IT teams aren't being trained or upskilled quickly enough to meet the cloud requirements that their business demands. 

It will surprise nobody to learn that cloud computing is an incredibly complex skill. It requires a highly trained workforce capable of combining networking engineering knowhow and cloud connectivity prowess with exquisite programming abilities.

And this is where the problem lies.

We are currently witnessing a widening cloud skills gap that is starting to resemble a chasm. Indeed, the glaring shortage of skilled professionals with cloud computing expertise now poses a critical challenge for enterprises. So, what can be done to plug the gap?

Addressing the crisis
Firstly, while the cloud is foundational for digital transformation, many companies are facing a shortage in digital skills that leaves them at a competitive disadvantage and limits their growth in the digital economy. In Australia, the digital skills gap presents businesses with an opportunity cost of $5.6 million per day ($2 billion annually). To try and fill the gap, Australian businesses are expected to spend $8 billion on learning and development in 2024. Four of the top five learning and development courses being invested in have a digital focus.

Secondly, the demand for cloud-focused skills is soaring. A survey by Deloitte found cloud computing remains the number one most sought-after skill: more than 90% of IT leaders want to expand their cloud environments, yet 80% say the scarcity of cloud skills is holding them back. This is alarming when you consider the dozens of public cloud providers available globally.

Thirdly, some businesses are attempting to cope with this crisis by adopting a convergence of skills in their IT workforce. In this scenario, a network engineer will be upskilled to learn about coding, while a software engineer will be upskilled to learn about networks. While this solution may suffice in the short term, it will surely lead to serious complications down the road. Unique skills such as Python scripting, WAN engineering, and data centre network engineering are not for the faint of heart. Neither is security and compliance, which requires up-to-date regulatory knowledge.

Multi-cloud and direct connectivity
At present, over 90% of companies worldwide use cloud services from leading providers such as AWS, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. However, the number of businesses choosing to utilise multiple cloud services has grown significantly in recent years, as has direct cloud connectivity – and with good reason. Direct cloud connectivity bypasses the public internet and establishes a dedicated, private connection to a cloud provider's services. It is secure, highly dependable, and offers greater bandwidth throughput to support mission-critical tasks such as large-scale data transfers and real-time analytics. Furthermore, these private connections are now available in very flexible, temporary forms without the 'lock-in' or hard-to-change bandwidth commitments of old.

However, understanding the nuances of multi-cloud and direct connectivity models can be dauntingly complex. For instance, the three major platform offerings – AWS Direct Connect, Google Cloud Interconnect, and Azure ExpressRoute – not only use different terminology but often require specific skills to fully harness their services. 

AWS Direct Connect requires experience in creating public and private virtual interfaces (VIFs), knowledge of setting up multiple types of gateways, and an understanding of AWS CloudFormation. Google Cloud Interconnect requires knowhow of Google Cloud VPC and Cloud VPN. Azure ExpressRoute, meanwhile, requires an understanding in Azure Virtual Networks (VNet) and configuring ExpressRoute circuits, ExpressRoute Global Reach, and ExpressRoute Direct.

On top of this, your IT team will need knowledge in the monitoring tools provided by each platform (Amazon CloudWatch, Google's Network Intelligence Center, and Azure Monitor) for troubleshooting and performance optimisation. Then there's the constant learning and remodifications to reflect the rapid pace of cloud innovation. 

When you factor in all these technical requirements and then couple them with the worryingly high IT skills shortage, you could be forgiven for thinking the cloud problem is insurmountable.

Fortunately, there is a fast and frictionless solution.

The simplified approach
In recent years, consumption-driven network platforms have emerged as the calculated choice for businesses looking to enhance their cloud operations without doing all the heavy lifting that goes with it. Essentially, doing more with less.

Network as a service, or NaaS for short, provides companies with a safe, resilient, and efficient solution to their cloud skills shortage problems. The beauty of this subscription approach is that it significantly reduces the technical and complex bottlenecks while allowing you to take full advantage of a plethora cloud services of your choosing. 

More importantly, a trusted NaaS provider will have already embedded their platform with the latest application programming interfaces (APIs), which will enable your business to integrate operations and deliver a flawless user experience without your IT team needing to constantly monitor API endpoints, which is a rarified skill by itself. 

As for cloud management, your business will have total visibility to all your cloud connections from a user-friendly dashboard, allowing you to switch-up performance on demand. Meanwhile, all your troubleshooting and maintenance needs are taken care of 24/7 by an expert team of engineers.

This isn't to say that NaaS is coming to take away jobs, but rather it will empower your IT team to focus their attention on business-critical goals in the knowledge that your cloud operations are running smoothly like a well-oiled machine, with optimal performance.