Staying competitive: Why investing in cloud skills matters

Enterprise workforce is becoming increasingly mobile, with anytime, anywhere, and with the emergence of edge computing, businesses have turned to cloud technology, adopting it at a scale that was unimaginable in the last decade. 

Comprehensively trained organizations are quick to not only adopt cloud, but more likely to realize that cloud environments can help jump-start innovation, and also more likely to meet cloud ROI requirements. However, for CIOs, it’s often a challenge to retain and train teams on cloud technologies in the pace that transformation demands. 

AWS’s recently concluded Digital Accelerator event in Delhi, put together, in collaboration with IDG Media, centred on the overarching theme, “Staying Competitive: Why investing in cloud skills matters”.

IDG

Addressing an audience of digital leaders, the opening context setting keynote from IDG, “Bridge Talent Gap, Build Cloud Skills”, by Executive Editor Shantheri Mallaya, explained the need for bridging the talent gap in cloud skills, drawing references to the findings of the State of the CIO Survey (SOTC), 2019. The findings suggest that with CEOs increasingly looking at revenue growth through digital initiatives – IT decision makers are acutely aware of the top five domains where there is a skillset gap, and cloud computing features among these areas.

The pace of innovation in enterprise has outpaced every other change, and hence it becomes very important for an organization to stay nimble, at the same time future-proof – cloud technologies and ensuing skills being one of the prime enablers in the transformation journey.

Puneet Chandok

President, India and SAARC at Amazon Internet Services

Mallaya elaborated on the six stages in an organization’s cloud journey, drawn from, IDC’s “Impact of Training on Cloud Benefits Survey, 2016”, to help digital leaders understand where they stood in this curve, whether at “Cloud Resistant” or having moved to “Cloud First”.

Pace of Innovation and Cloud Skills

As cloud has become the new normal, organizations are looking to accelerate their cloud adoption to remain relevant to their customers. 

In the keynote session on “Accelerate Transformation through Training”, Puneet Chandok, President, India and SAARC at Amazon Internet Services rationalized how rapid scaling up on the cloud helps organizations transform their businesses, and that there is no doubt that cloud adoption is growing quickly. 

He also stated a Forbes report that outlined that 83% enterprise workloads will have moved to the cloud by 2020.  He observed, “The pace of innovation in enterprise has outpaced every other change, and hence it becomes very important for an organization to stay nimble, at the same time future-proof – cloud technologies and ensuing skills being one of the prime enablers in the transformation journey”. 

Build & Shift the Cloud Training Culture 

Chandok observed that training was the lever that could close the gap between existing skills and innovation. Therefore, investing in cloud skills was the way to go, and more importantly, identifying the leader who would drive the cloud training and transformation culture was the crux of any shift that could happen in an enterprise. 

There is a huge demand for AWS practitioners. By training our practitioners on AWS skills and best practices, we are helping them move up the value chain, cutting down the learning curve and readying them for the market. Biswajit Mohapatra Global Integrated Delivery Leader – Cloud Migration Factory, IBM India

As an ongoing effort, AWS Training and Certification offers a huge repository of content and know-how to develop teams, innovate in the cloud, and transform organizations. There are many AWS training programs such as Digital and Classrooms Training, and the AWS Cloud Skills Guild (Enterprise), which is a comprehensive enablement program to help organizations cross over the huge cloud skill set requirement. 

AWS training directly and measurably contributes to customer success that includes faster time to market, increased profitability, lower business risk and increased employee engagement. 

Also speaking on the occasion, Biswajit Mohapatra, Global Integrated Delivery Leader – Cloud Migration Factory at IBM India, gave some sharp insights into IBM’s view on “Partnering to win in the Era of Digital Reinvention.”

Cloud Skills Guild Program

• Acceleration program to create excitement for cloud and increase cloud fluency across an organization
• Combines formal training and certification programs with game days, hackathons, immersion days, workshops, brown bag sessions, and working backwards sessions
• Brings together resources into a cohesive program for teams

Biswajit stated that future of cloud story is all about businesses unlocking the door to new business models, new ways of work and new expertise.

He opined, “There is a huge demand for AWS practitioners. By training our practitioners on AWS skills and best practices, we are helping them move up the value chain, cutting down the learning curve and readying them for the market.” 

Biswajit highlighted in a world that is moving faster than ever, hybrid cloud migration, modernization and management are the success mantra to stay relevant and accelerate digital transformation journey for the customers across the Globe. AWS has been a key enabler and ecosystem partner for IBM in many such customer success stories.