New responsibilities from cloud computing affect IT personnel
Monday, October 31, 2011 5:05:40 PM
Though security concerns have been considered the biggest drawbacks to more widespread adoption of cloud computing, another impediment has increasingly proved to be a lack of knowledge pertaining to the technology. Around the world, more executives, chief information officers and IT personnel are beginning to gain an education in the services, and many are finding the new knowledge to be very helpful.
ZDNet Asia recently published an article asserting that the reason for the sometimes slow pace of cloud services adoption is the relative lack of educational offerings for executives who are generally in charge of strategy and IT budgets. If the executive doesn't understand the technology, and IT personnel can't explain it properly, the business will not be likely to overhaul its operations. Additionally, the source notes that the cloud has revolutionized the roles and responsibilities of IT departments in virtually every industry.
"With cloud, we're now sourcing applications from outside [providers] to either supplement or replace the in-house application developers," Chris Morris, vice president of the International Data Corporation's Asia Pacific division, told the news provider. "So while we have application developers who have the technical capability to write and test the code, what we also need, and are in short supply, are people with a business understanding of their company's own nuances - what makes it tick - so they can customize those cloud services to suit their company."
Many experts have explained that the cloud makes IT personnel more responsible for the actual management of operations, in addition to other unique challenges the technology poses. The news provider notes that IT personnel will need to be far more comfortable assessing their companies' security requirements, especially in instances of stringent regulatory compliance overseeing operations.
As the cloud is expected to grow exponentially over the next decade, businesses will need to ensure they are hiring the most capable of IT personnel, especially when switching general operations to cloud computing solutions. The International Data Corporation projects the cloud to grow from a $3.8 billion and 600,000 unit market in 2010, to $6.4 billion and more than 1.3 million units by 2014.
Additionally, Gartner expects Software-as-a-Service alone to rise from representing less than 10 percent of total enterprise email seats currently, to more than 55 percent within the next eight years.
-McAfee Cloud Security
