How does cloud computing affect it employment?

Cloud computing is both a good and a scary thing for it workers and their job security.

For example, a recent study published by Microsoft and IDC predicts that cloud computing will create 14 million jobs worldwide by 2015. But these jobs are not just it jobs, but jobs that span all walks of life around the world.

For it, this news can be frustrating: a survey by the IT service Provider CSC found that 14% of companies have reduced IT staff after deploying cloud strategies.

As more and more companies start deploying cloud computing, experts say they still need IT staff, but they will need different types of IT staff. No longer a management infrastructure, a support desk, and a debugging server, future IT staff will likely need to manage vendor relationships, cross-sectoral work, and help customers and workers integrate into the cloud environment.

"The number one reason most companies are turning to cloud computing is to save costs," says Phil Garland, chief information officer of PricewaterhouseCooper's Consulting business Services Division. The biggest expense in the corporate budget is usually the labor force, which reduces the number of people needed when the enterprise deploys cloud computing.

However, this does not mean that IT staff will no longer be needed. In fact, although 14% of the companies surveyed by the CSC cut their IT staff, another 20% of the companies actually increased IT staff.

"It really depends on what the business is doing in the cloud," Garland added. "In most cases, moving to a cloud environment is a shift of responsibility, not a total dismissal or hiring." ”

For example, located in North Carolina State, Underwriters Laboratories Company (i.e. UL), a company with 9,500 employees provides THIRD-PARTY inspection and certification services to more than 50,000 enterprises worldwide.

In August, the company transformed from the IBM Communications system Lotus Notes and Domino's internal management deployment into a cloud-based SaaS offering for Microsoft Office 365, "We need something more resilient," Chief Information Officer Christian Anschuetz said the company has made several mergers and acquisitions in recent years and is expected to make more acquisitions in the future. Anschuetz wants a simpler way to deploy new communications systems without requiring additional infrastructure to provide support.

It took about eight weeks to migrate to the cloud environment, and this almost immediately transformed the company's IT requirements. UL no longer needs employees to manage their communications platforms, email services and chat functions. In addition to the artificial cuts in these areas, Anschuetz says its IT budget has increased twice times since the cloud was deployed.

"Most people think that after migrating to the cloud we will reduce our services and make them more cost-effective," he says. ”

The most needed service in the new UL system is to provide the service for the customer-oriented staff to help the UL customer integrate into the company's platform. As a company responsible for product development and manufacturing, Anschuetz said that customers expect UL employees to be able to integrate into the product lifecycle as early as possible. Based on cloud computing system so that UL can more closely with the customer cooperation. No longer need face-to-face meetings, or to send mail back and forth, now files are stored in the cloud environment, UL and customers can access, so as to provide a better collaboration. "UL has realized that the flexibility provided by the cloud environment has created a huge market value for us," he said. "The cloud environment allows us to collaborate with our customers to develop new applications and strengthen our relationships with our customers." "Because the cloud environment creates value for the business, UL is planning to recruit more staff to help manage cloud computing integration."

It is also the reasoning used by IDC and Microsoft in its survey that it says cloud computing will help increase 14 million jobs in the next five years.

"By offloading services to a cloud environment, you add new projects and new planned budgets, which also leads to new business revenues," says John Gantz, an IDC researcher who studies technology economics. ”

Now three-fourths of IT spending is spent on legacy systems and upgrades, and the rest is spent on new products. If the enterprise cuts down the system management cost, this will bring the new project and the new plan the additional resources, this will also increase the income, even increases the employment opportunity. Although the increase in employment opportunities is not necessarily the IT department.

In the short term, cloud deployments may need to increase IT staff to manage transition processes and monitor new cloud systems and vendors. In the long run, however, cloud deployments will increase productivity and reduce it work within the enterprise. At the macroeconomic level, Grantz does not see the macroeconomic implications of cloud deployments. Fewer jobs for individual companies will be offset by increased job opportunities for cloud providers.

David Moschella, head of global research at CSC leading Edge forum, also agreed that it investments often lead to a decline in the demand for corporate employees.

"As technology improves, companies may need fewer employees," he says. ”

Traditionally, when work in one area is reduced, it usually leads to an increase in work in another area. Moschella believes this, but he says it is too early to judge which areas are the beneficiaries of the jobs that cloud computing deploys.

Predictably, traditional it roles in managing software and hardware will no longer be needed in the new cloud environment world. (邹铮 Compilation)

(Responsible editor: The good of the Legacy)