I was recently asked on Twitter if I thought that cloud computing was going to mean less work for IT Pros. After thinking about it for a while, the conclusion I came to was that it would not only help me, but it would allow me to continue to live and thrive on the Central Coast where the scenery is great and the jobs are limited.
Here is a list of my thoughts on the topic in bullet point format for easy consumption:
- The computer meant less work for all kinds of office workers whose jobs were replaced by computers. However companies that brought in computers became more efficient, grew as a business, and quickly had more (better?) work for those employees to be doing.
- Java/C# is more efficient (from a labor perspective) and less error-prone than C/C++ which is more efficient and less error-prone than assembly. We use these better “tools” to produce better and less error-prone programs with a lot less effort.
- When NT started to replace Novell it left a lot of systems administrators who did not update (upgrade?) their skills with limited work options. In this industry we are expected to almost continually be updating our skill set. When anyone working in technology stops learning they quickly become less and less relevant.
Do I think that a drastic shift to cloud computing will mean those at the bottom of the IT Pro totem pole will be in trouble? Yes. Does that bother me? No. The IT Pro profession is not going anywhere.
- The cloud vendors are going to need people to run their clouds, and they are going to need highly skilled, highly paid, and highly respected IT Pros to do that job. IT Pros that install the operating system from a CD need not apply.
- I am an IT Pro but by and large the job I do is not being replaced by the cloud. I architect IT solutions to meet business needs. Cloud Computing has just offered me another tool to offer my clients to meet those needs.
- The IT Pros that right now do a job that a script could do in a fraction of the time are giving us all a bad name. If I was paying someone to create accounts all day I would not be happy. I would much rather pay someone like me (and hopefully you) to automate that process based off of HR data (just as an example).
As you can see from my lists, I believe that cloud computing will actually make me more relevant as an IT pro. We have years of companies migrating to the cloud ahead of us. They are going to need experts to turn and I plan on being one of those experts. As the competition heats
"Learn to adapt! Stop trying to determine how to hold onto the job you have and start trying to determine how to get the next job that you want." Steve Evans - SerkTools
up and more and more cloud offering come online, the need for IT Pros up to date on the topic will increase. The great thing about cloud is that no one has access to the location except for the cloud vendor which mean all companies will be perfectly fine with me running their cloud environments from my office on the beautiful Central Coast.
Cloud Computing is the new and exciting technological challenge we are faced with. Along with those challenges come new technical opportunities for folks like us. My advice, “Learn to adapt! Stop trying to determine how to hold onto the job you have and start trying to determine how to get the next job that you want.” If you have any questions about cloud computing, please feel free to contact me via my website at SerkTools