Back in the spring issue, we highlighted the current shortage of IT specialists and showed how this is causing real problems for nearly four out of ten firms who are struggling to recruit workers with the advanced technical skills they need.
As we all know, this is a perennial problem but it has been exacerbated by the growth of cloud computing, which has made digital technologies more affordable for small and medium-sized businesses that no longer have to deal with prohibitive upfront costs. In the past, it was only employees at ‘traditional’ IT firms that required digital skills, now staff from a wide range of industries are required to have some form of computer literacy.
This has led to increased competition for individuals with IT skills as recruiters realise there is a looming skills gap where companies cannot find members of staff with the knowledge and expertise to exploit cloud resources. It has meant that some existing members of staff have been retrained or reskilled in order to smooth the transition from in-house IT resources to those based in the cloud. Businesses have also had to face new challenges relating to the cloud, relying on their employees to handle any disruptions. Issues relating to data protection and integration are relatively recent business phenomena brought about by the cloud and employees that have the skills needed to deal with these issues are highly sought-after.
The cloud has also had a major impact on the skill sets required by more technical staff. The cloud delivery model has led to more regular software updates and faster deployments, changing the role played by developers. Software engineers must now have the skills to handle automation and DevOps, two relatively recent cloud developments. The role of a developer is now more closely aligned with operations staff and other IT personnel, meaning that they need to be able to work in larger teams and collaborate frequently. Cloud has also led to the growth of mobile working, so developers must be able to create flexible applications that suit this environment, as well as desktop PCs. Because the cloud has brought applications to a wider range of staff, developers must have the ability to tailor software to vastly differing needs.
The proliferation of cloud vendors over the last decade has also altered the kind of skills desired by IT managers and CTOs. So much of the IT landscape can now be outsourced, from individual applications to entire infrastructures, so in-house skill sets are changing. Capacity planning and server maintenance, for example, are now being carried out by cloud vendors, leaving IT staff to focus on other processes. Instead, businesses need employees who understand the cloud environment all the way from the network layer to the application stage. Having knowledge of load balancing, network routing, virtualisation and open source technologies is extremely useful in the modern workplace.
The shift has also led to greater emphasis on soft skills. Partnership and teamwork is vital between customer and cloud vendor so having the ability to collaborate is becoming increasingly important.
All these factors led to us developing our Residency Service, a staff augmentation service that provides technical and service specialists to perform project-related tasks or business as usual operational activities. We offer it to existing customers who are struggling to resource their IT function perhaps because they need a specific set of skills, face budget or policy limitations such as a headcount freeze, have a short-term project or are having trouble recruiting talent to a specific location.
If you’d like to discuss whether Residency Services could benefit your organisation, contact your account manager in the first instance, email avail@sungardas.com or call 0800 143 413 for more information.