The debate of cloud computing's role in job creation
Friday, October 31, 2011 10:41:45 AM
A growing debate in the IT sector has been over the potential harms and benefits of the cloud computing industry to the business world, especially in regard to workforce members. ZDNet Asia recently published an article positing the threat that the cloud might pose to personnel, much in the way machines in the century prior were held responsible for lost jobs in agriculture and manufacturing.
It's difficult to accurately project if and when such a drastic result could occur. Some industry experts believe the cloud will evolve to a point that it could potentially cause the end of the IT profession, the website notes, though many were skeptical that this could happen at such a fast rate.
In addition to these defenses of the technology, the cloud, and IT in general, will likely need operators and developers for many years to come, as a version of artificial intelligence that could potentially create new software and infrastructures seems to be fairly far off.
Much of the projected job loss, the news provider notes, is specifically in data center management and operations. The cloud has already proven it can cut down on the need for data centers, which some experts believe will ultimately lead to the collapse of the field.
However, many job creation analysts believe IT will be among the fastest growing sectors in the coming years. According to the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics, the professional, scientific and technical services sector is projected to grow 34 percent, or by more than 2.5 million jobs, over the next six years.
Within this sector, the BLS projects computer system designs and related services jobs to increase by 45 percent by 2018, which comprises nearly a quarter of the industry's total estimated new job creation.
Private firms likewise believe the other facets of the cloud will explode, so though jobs might be lost in the data center management profession, experts believe the rapid growth rate in the sector at large will facilitate more job creation than loss.
Industry research firm Gartner projects Software-as-a-Service alone to grow 20 percent this year, and reach $12 billion in overall revenue. The firm also estimates that North American companies will represent more than 60 percent of the global SaaS market share.
-McAfee Cloud Security
