Cloud computing remains the number one most sought-after skill

Writing code to create cloud-based digital portals and business applications isn’t just for software companies anymore. Increasingly, tech-forward businesses are building their own stable of software engineers and cloud architects to generate custom digital software and products, rather than relying on third-party vendors.

That’s a huge shift for most businesses. And, for many, the ongoing dearth of skilled cloud workers will make the transition even more arduous. Acute shortages in cloud roles include developers, engineers, architects, and strategists. At the same time, COVID-19 has accelerated the need for cloud-based, secure remote-work platforms and solutions to automate technology. Consider the numbers: Cloud job postings soared 94% between 2017 and 2020¹, and have accelerated during the pandemic, exacerbated by challenges in various global talent markets and the Great Resignation.

Businesses face a panoply of talent issues that include accelerated hiring processes, hefty salaries of experienced cloud workers, and difficulties finding candidates who fit the organization’s culture. It’s a mighty challenge, but one that’s essential to business performance. Lacking a cloud-literate workforce, the engines of growth may sputter. In fact, more than 90% of IT leaders plan to expand their modern software engineering and cloud environments, yet 80% say inadequate employee skills are holding them back.²

“Cloud computing remains the number one most sought-after skill,” according to Megan Slabinski, a district president at recruiting firm Robert Half.³ “The demand has never been higher.”

It’s a challenge that impacts businesses across industries and geographies, and Deloitte is no exception. After years of attempting to tackle the cloud talent crunch, we contend there are six fundamental ways to address it.

Bridging the gap between academia and corporate America

As many companies grapple with shifting their organizational output to software, they require software engineers who are equally well versed in technology and business strategy. Given the paucity of skilled tech workers, that won’t be easy.

One reason, in part, is that it is unlikely that colleges and universities will be able to meet urgent technology training needs anytime soon. Why not? Ninety-five percent of university technology curriculum takes roughly two years to develop or change.⁴ Given the white-hot velocity of tech innovation, higher ed simply cannot keep up. Instead, it often punts learning responsibilities to businesses and government agencies.

A potential solution is stronger partnerships among universities, businesses, and cloud providers to help develop up-to-the-minute learning that combines deep technical training with a singular business strategy. Given the measured pace of change among universities, corporate America can help bridge the gap between academia and industry.

At Deloitte, we have been working with Mahadev Satyanarayanan, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University and Deloitte Cloud Institute Fellow, to rethink education strategies.

What we’ve learned is that the curriculum must be experiential and include hands-on learning that is cohort based. This builds a common experience that students go through together. And that creates community and engagement.

– Mahadev Satyanarayanan

Back to top

Both/and: Upskilling existing employees and training new hires at the front end

Back in the workplace, upskilling and reskilling existing employees can help you update knowledge and create a collaborative culture of engineering-led thinking. To identify credible candidates, we canvass staff to identify employees with technology skills and interests, such as knowledge of a programming language. For example, we take Java programmers and upskill them in cloud-native development. What matters most is a keen interest and basic aptitude in technology, not where workers sit within the organization.

Beyond upskilling and reskilling, businesses should provide in-depth training for new hires at the front end—before they begin their jobs. At Deloitte, many of our core cloud new hires receive four to eight weeks of dedicated training that is aligned to personas and roles. Doing so allows newcomers to focus 100% of their attention on full-time training and development. We also pair new workers with an experienced cloud “learning coach” to provide practical learning and on-the-job shadowing of cloud specialists. What’s more, the training is a combination of skills-based and simulation training, so the emphasis is on applied engineering and applying that learning to real-world use cases and challenging problems.

This total focus on training tends to produce better outcomes because workers participate with an unwavering attention in full-time e-learning, vendor-led bootcamps, and cloud certification programs. It’s an investment that we think is well worth it. At Deloitte, this learning approach is changing the face and makeup of our organization. It allows us to focus on custom coding in the cloud and building apps for our clients, who in turn are using this knowledge to build their own apps and solve their own problems.

What’s more, the training is a combination of skills-based and simulation training, so the emphasis is on applied engineering and applying that learning to real-world use cases and challenging problems.

Back to top

Building more builders

The path out of the talent crunch starts with building more builders, rather than hiring and training more project managers. At Deloitte, we are expanding our stable of developers. We have rapidly expanded into building custom cloud-based solutions that are nimble, agile, and easy to update. Software engineers have become creators who build new solutions that can differentiate the business.

In other words, developers are no longer focused on application maintenance and support. Instead, they have become critical resources that help drive business innovation and outcomes. Companies should empower developers by giving them autonomy, alongside minimal guardrails and a few absolute rules, allowing them to experiment with new technology choices, architectural decisions, and more innovative ways to solve business and technology problems. Then, developers should be unleashed and encouraged to get creative with code. So instead of configuring existing package software, developers are given a clean sheet of paper on which to build a new solution in the cloud, one that is nimble and easily altered.

Doing so will likely be a profound change for most enterprises. Two decades ago, the first decision in technology projects was whether to buy and implement a best-of-breed solution or build complex custom software from scratch. The safe bet was almost always the first option. But companies like Airbnb changed all that. These born-in-the-cloud businesses eschew big software implementations in favor of writing their own custom apps. This shift has altered staffing needs as companies hire fewer project managers and instead focus on creating more builders.

The path out of the talent crunch starts with building more builders, rather than hiring and training more project managers.

Back to top

Design curriculum around personas

One way to help resolve the acute shortage of cloud workers is adoption of a forward-thinking cloud workforce curriculum designed around roles and personas that cuts across the organization. Traditional learning methods are siloed and tend to be vertically focused on a particular group or function, rather than the entire organization.

A more effective approach is built on a broad focus horizontally across the organization. At Deloitte, for instance, we require cloud-native developers across multiple service areas that include cloud engineering, application modernization, and digital customer. Whereas training in the past was designed for one area of the organization, the focus is now a true persona-based curriculum that comprises bundled roles or skills that can be applied across functional areas.

The first step is to identify key roles and personas that are critical and common to building a culture of software engineering. These roles can include cloud strategists, developers, engineers, architects, and data analysts. Addressing the talent shortfall will require that you understand the critical personas needed across the verticals of your organization. Training curriculum can be shared across related roles and groups, providing an enterprisewide consistency in skills and knowledge.

One way to help resolve the acute shortage of cloud workers is adoption of a forward-thinking cloud workforce curriculum designed around roles and personas that cuts across the organization. Traditional learning methods are siloed and tend to be vertically focused on a particular group or function, rather than the entire organization.

Back to top

More than just cloud certification

A cloud learning curriculum should encompass curated e-learning, vendor-led bootcamps, cloud certification workshops, and experiential hands-on practicums. It’s about ensuring each professional has the full set of skills to do the work required and is deployment-ready. Many companies overplay certifications in cloud and other technologies. Yes, a cloud certification is an important credential. But training should go beyond specific cloud service provider skills to include new ways of working, as well as foster engineering-led thinking and culture across the enterprise.

We believe in mixed-mode applied learning. Part of the curriculum must include a truly hands-on component, where professionals can spin up containers or create Kubernetes clusters in a lab environment. In some learning pathways, professionals also get a chance to work in small pod teams to develop a new cloud-based app and demo it in a capstone review.

Creating a common experience is increasingly essential, especially as new employees join an organization and COVID-19 protocols potentially inhibit face-to-face meetings with coworkers. Building a tightly connected virtual team will require advanced communications and collaboration tools, along with regular video check-ins. By grouping people together in cohorts guided by learning coaches, these measures can create a stickiness that binds the workforce and helps retain skilled workers.

Yes, a cloud certification is an important credential. But training should go beyond specific cloud service provider skills to include new ways of working, as well as foster engineering-led thinking and culture across the enterprise.

Back to top

It’s a mindset shift

This new emphasis on cloud education will represent a monumental shift in thinking. It will require a culture of experimentation in which smaller teams are rewarded for creative coding without penalty for failure. Code will become a creative path toward open-ended problem-solving.

This new approach to learning should include instruction on modern delivery processes and tools. Modern delivery includes technical tools such as DevOps, agile methodology, and design thinking. Together, these tools can enable developers to deliver iterative, agile experimentation that advances individual creativity.

Employees who attain these skills deserve recognition. Organizations can do so by urging employees to promote their achievements using meaningful internal credentials. At Deloitte, we award digital “badges” that workers can display on their internal profile pages to call attention to cloud skills and completed learning programs, bootcamps, and certifications. These badges enable coworkers to understand and tag other workers’ skill sets and knowledge.

Modern delivery includes technical tools such as DevOps, agile methodology, and design thinking. Together, these tools can enable developers to deliver iterative, agile experimentation that advances individual creativity.

Back to top

Creating the cloud workforce of the future

Today’s swiftly evolving tech landscape requires constant expansion of skill sets and knowledge. But challenges in training cloud talent cut across industries. It’s a problem that Deloitte has been thinking about, too. We have applied these challenges—at scale—in creating the Deloitte Cloud Institute™, which trains thousands of our cloud professionals each year.

The Deloitte Cloud Institute offers an applied learning experience that fuses hands-on technical training with business strategy. The Institute’s multi-week learning pathways include best-in-class e-learning, hands-on instructor-led bootcamps, and cloud certification courses. Curriculum is based on personas and cohorts to upskill/reskill and provide front-end training.

The Deloitte Cloud Institute also helps advance new ways of working, including the use of pod-based deployment, small teams, and agile methodologies. This learning is supplemented by hands-on lab experience and on-the-job shadowing of more senior cloud specialists. Knowledge building doesn’t stop there, however. Our continuous learning philosophy provides exposure to new cloud skills and knowledge-building throughout employees’ careers. We encourage cloud professionals to invest in their own futures by advancing their learning each year.

Increasingly, our clients are asking for our help deploying the Cloud Institute as an out-of-the-box capability to help uplift their talent and better prepare them for the future. But as the battle for talent intensifies, there is no silver bullet to address staffing challenges. The only sustainable approach involves some combination of building, buying, and renting software-engineering talent based on your long-term strategy. Not having a plan today could lead to disastrous consequences tomorrow as software continues to eat the world. If your organization is grappling with the cloud tech-talent shortage, connect with us to discuss how to apply the principles of the Deloitte Cloud Institute for your workforce.

Endnotes

1 Aaron Tilley, “Lack of engineers keeping some firms out of the cloud,” Wall Street Journal, October 6, 2021.
2 Jack M. Germain, “Skills shortage rains on cloud advances,” TechNewsWorld, November 3, 2020.
3 Aaron Tilley, “Lack of engineers keeping some firms out of the cloud,” Wall Street Journal, October 6, 2021.
4 Justin Vianello, “Creating net-new tech talent during the worst talent shortage we’ve seen,” CIO, August 25, 2020.