The Cloud Conundrum

Every industry goes through disruptive changes that alter who works in the industry and the nature of their jobs. IT has been going through these changes since computers were first used in business. The rapid change means workers in the IT sector will typically not perform the same job for any long period of time. 

I have been working in IT long before that was my primary job. I sidelined in graphic design and picked up a lot of IT-related skills, which made me the go-to IT support resource at my day job. I worked in a corporate advertising department with no dedicated IT resource. 

As I moved into full-time web development over 20 years ago, I can safely say that there has not been a period of more than three years where I was doing the same job. Changes in technology always forced me to adapt. 

Today, the shift to Cloud computing is again disrupting IT paradigms and skills. The benefits of Cloud computing for any business are clear, though you might not be aware of it. 

As the owner of a company that focuses on web and cloud delivery, I am often selling to customers who will experience seismic shifts in their jobs through the adaption of our services. This makes for a difficult pitch, and an even harder close. I have written many proposals over the years that changed the nature of how IT staff would work in the future. Today, our Cloud services proposals utilizing Microsoft Azure are not changing jobs, but eliminating them, and often jobs of the people to whom I am selling. 

While businesses can shift IT roles, and make use of internal resources and skills, there is no doubt that adaptation of a Cloud-based model will reduce the need for current skillsets. 

So, while Azure is again disrupting IT, the benefits to business have never been greater — but so has been the resistance to change — this is the Cloud Conundrum.