Cloud Computing Professionals Are In Demand

According to Janco, while much of the U.S. economy experiences a “jobless recovery,” the cloud computing sector shows a strong upward trend according to the Internet job hiring sites. Demand for technologists with cloud skills is surging, as shown listings of cloud computing positions at the job search engine Indeed. That trend is borne out in the current job listings from two of the largest cloud providers:

-- Amazon.com currently has job listings for more than 900 technical jobs, including at least 423 positions at Amazon Web Services, the company’s cloud computing operation

-- Rackspace Hosting is looking to fill 100 available positions in various IT areas at an upcoming job fair, Rackerpalooza 2011. Most of the growth at Rackspace over the past year has occurred in the company’s cloud computing business

-- Dice.com has 1,776 jobs posted with cloud in the job title

-- Monster.com has over 1,000 jobs posted with cloud as one the job requirements

Poaching Likely to Increase

A recent survey from accounting firm BDO found that cloud adoption was a factor in technology companies’ plans to boost hiring in 2011. Forty six percent of CFOs at tech companies said they expect to boost employee headcount this year, while just 7 percent expected staff to decrease.

The demand for cloud technologists may also lead to more poaching of experienced workers from competitors. A recent survey by Dice.com found that 62 percent of hiring managers and recruiters anticipate that tech talent poaching will get more aggressive this year, while just 1 percent of respondents saw it receding. “There are few consequences for technology professionals should they decide to jump to a competitor,” Dice reports. “Only 11 percent of hiring managers said they would not allow a former employee to return after being poached.”

Janco feels that the recovery has not taken hold and the IT job market will be soft for at least one more quarter. Janco predicts there will be more churn in IT staff as CIOs accelerate their move to more flexible staffing models. CIOs are outsourcing more technical work, including managed IP services such as VoIP and VPNs. They are hiring more contractors for desktop and security services, and they are putting more applications such as remote backup in the cloud. At the same time, they are looking to hire IT people with business and analytical skills, such as risk management and project management. CIOs report that they're having trouble hiring IT people because either they can't find IT professionals with the right business skills or they can't afford them. All of this means more turnover in IT departments.

More information on Cloud Computing can be found at www.CRMindustry.com.