Could You Work in the Cloud?

I'm sure you've heard how some people fear that the cloud computing phenomenon will cut jobs in different industries.

While it is unclear yet how many jobs will actually be 'transformed' with the introduction of the cloud, multiple studies have shown that the same cloud industry will actually generate jobs.

One of those recent studies, which is a joint report by 'Oxford Economics', 'Goldblatt McGuigan' and 'Whisple Cloud', have even stated that this new technology will generate 16,000 more jobs in Northern Ireland alone.

Personally, when I think about such figures, I just can't help but wonder what kind of jobs could those be. And, like most people, I've come to the natural conclusion that those jobs will most likely be IT related.

However, is this actually the case? Let's have a look at the kind of jobs that the cloud-computing industry could generate:

• IT engineers: well, this is an obvious one. After all, the Cloud is directly related to Software-as-a-Service, or Platform-as-a-Service or even Infrastructure-as-a-Service.

However, beyond all of this, there are lots of developers working behind a single cloud-computing offer. Indeed, if you only consider the software in itself, it needs hours of coding and testing before it can be delivered as a complete product. As well as the core development of the software, don't forget the 'mobile developer' whos task is to make the product viewable through apps or mobile versions of the website. In the same technical field, we can also include lots of System Administrators and Network Administrators who will make things work smoothly, with an availability which is defined on the Service Level Agreement.

• Customer Support team: At this stage, there can be many different levels of support, thus many different roles within a Cloud based team. The cloud being availed to people from different places and countries, the chances are that support could be needed in different languages, and on different time-zones.

• The Sales team: Most cloud-computing business models have an in-house sales team, but they also rely heavily on resellers that will do the demos as well as sell-on the Cloud solutions. This reseller's business model allow cloud computing to generate a lot of jobs since the same system can be sold in different ways, and from different locations thereby making geo-segmentation easier.

• Training and consulting: as is common with any new technology, the introduction of cloud-computing solutions will require some change management as well as training to end users.

• And last but not least, the cloud in itself can enable budding entrepreneurs to create new ventures. I've already written previously about how the cloud can help make a difference to the solo-preneur - as a reminder, we said that cloud computing is the 'magic' solution that allows the solo-preneur to focus on their business while 'outsourcing' their IT solutions to the cloud: this could include book-keeping systems, customer relationships management as well as communications (e-mail, calendar, contact... ).

This list is surely not exhaustive, and I invite you the reader to add to it or by all means, delve into more detail on some specific points. After all, your contribution may also inspire some other people to consider the advantages of cloud-computing for their business.

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