5 Steps to Help Bridge the Hybrid Skills Gap

Do You Want to Bridge the Hybrid Skills Gap? Use These Steps

The hybrid cloud can be more complicated then you realize. These five steps can help you bridge the hybrid skills gap and find the right path forward.   

The hybrid cloud is usually seen as the best of both worlds. This is because it gives businesses the ability and scalability of the public cloud and still allows them to host some information in their own data center for security or cost reasons. However, managing the complexity of the hybrid cloud means that there needs to be some specific skills used. About half of cloud professionals will say the cloud is more complicated than expected and in order to have a hybrid cloud approach for your business, there are some steps you need to take.

Know the Cloud Journey

For some, the hybrid cloud is an end state. For others, it’s just a step on the path to a public cloud environment. It helps to know how your cloud journey is going to go so that you can determine which skills are needed. If the hybrid cloud is the permanent end goal then leaders may want to invest in more training for existing employees or hire new ones. If the organization is only going to operate in this environment for a few years then it could make more sense to rely on managed services.

Determine the Needs

Once a business and the IT leader are able to tell where they are going, they should then determine the skills that are needed on the journey and when the environment is up and running. Security and networking are usually two important areas. Networking can get complicated, especially as organizations migrate workloads to the public cloud. While some early concerns of security in the public cloud are exaggerated, it’s still a consideration when placing data on outside infrastructure. An organization needs to make sure that it has the right mix of expertise and security to keep information safe.

Identify Infrastructure

There are different solutions for help streaming the path to the cloud. While these tools can make the job easier, they also do require some specialized skills. When adopting new skills, it’s important to understand if you already have those skills or you need to get others in-house who can develop that knowledge.

Look at Existing Skills

Once you know what skills are needed then it’s time to make an assessment of the existing staff in order to identify any gaps. For example, many organizations don’t have in-house experience related to cloud applications or automation. With a hybrid cloud environment, developmental teams need to work together with systems teams. Systems engineers may need to learn some new coding skills.

Create a Path

There are different ways for organizations to get the cloud experience they need. They can work with existing staff, hire new employees with the skills, or bring in managed services or third-party partners. Workers who have deep cloud experience are in short supply and high demand. If you want to hire these trained employees, you will need to pay a premium. However, there are plenty of training opportunities that can be used to train existing employees. Training employees may not be the most attractive option for organizations that are only adopting a hybrid cloud approach temporarily since many organizations find that a high percentage of employees end up leaving jobs for higher-paying ones with the newly acquired skills. Many organizations find that consulting services or managed services then help them bridge the skills gap.

While there is no right away to get the cloud skills you need, and there isn’t just one set of skills that are required, it’s important that you learn what you have then figure out how you can get from one point to the next.