What does Cloud Computing and Virtualisation mean for the future of IT skills?

One of the most prominent trends in IT nowadays is the move towards Cloud Computing and Virtualisation. In brief this is the concept of business using more IT services on demand via the internet, than in-house.

For Infrastructure needs businesses can now even get hardware functionality by subscribing to such services on the internet. This means they do not have to buy and maintain servers anymore, but can get those and their -operating systems via a Service Provider on the internet. If the capacity gets too small, add some more capacity is done by taking a better subscription.

For Software Applications the model is similar. Businesses can now replace their in-house software packages with subscribed software services from the same vendors. For example an accounting package that was previously used in a company and installed on an in-house server, is now available on the internet by subscription on a monthly or -usage basis by the same company.

This reduces the need for small to medium-sized businesses to maintain their own server and network infra-structure and rather get the same functionality over the internet an a pay-as-you-use basis.

What does this hold for the future of the In-house Techincal Infrastructure Specialist and for the In-house Software Developer ?

Infrastructure specialists will now be needed more to work in vendor environments. Their job skills will be the same as always, although Virtualisation skills and certifications will be more in demand. In such vendor companies, there will be an added need to equip these technicians with people- and sales skills because of the business model of supplying the services to clients.

On the software application side inside a user company, programmers will now need to customise and extract data from such on-line software services. These programmers will need to skill themselves up more on the Front-End side with web and scripting software skills to :


- enable in-house applications with web front-ends 
- use / extract data from on-line software services companies for in-house customisations.

In brief : - technical skills will never become obsolete, there will be more of a shift to where they will be employed. 

At Compuways we are ready to supply the right kind of candidate for every position in an IT environment. Whether it is with an IT vendor or with and IT user. Software Application developers for in-house systems or for vendors supplying web - services. We are able to ensure the right person is matched to the right position in the right company. Our 20 years in the IT Industry has seen many shifts in IT : From Mainframes to PC's, from procedural software programming languages to 4th generation programming languages to Object - Oriented programming languages. From mainframe to mini computers and then to servers. From servers to virtualised servers. There was never a stage where good - solutions-oriented IT skills were not in demand.

Our clients can testify that we are able to provide the right skills at the right time - always!