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Multicloud Skills Are Critical, But Lacking

Organizations are hindered by a large multicloud skills gap, according to the 2023 State of Cloud Report from Pluralsight.

The findings underscore how critical cloud skills development is for organizations to ensure the multicloud reward outweighs the risk.


A Hasty Rush to Multicloud

In 2023, multicloud strategies are becoming increasingly commonplace, with more than 65% of organizations currently operating within multicloud environments and another 20% saying they're actively pursuing an additional cloud platform for their cloud environment.

However, in the rush toward multicloud architectures, many organizations are finding themselves underprepared and lacking resources to succeed. The report found that:

■ Only 20% of organizations have defined a cloud security strategy while another 28% are working to build one.

■ To compound the problem, only 9% have extensive experience with more than one cloud provider.

There is good news, though — 71% of leaders expect their cloud budgets to increase over the next 12 months and 74% of leaders expect their cloud skills development budgets to increase in parallel.

Organizations should be strategically leveraging cloud skills development if they want to build a culture of cloud and maximize their cloud investments

"Learners are struggling to keep up with such a fast-paced cloud evolution," said Drew Firment, Chief Cloud Strategist at Pluralsight. "As a result, most organizations still lack the maturity to operationalize multicloud computing, and this year's research findings make that clear. Organizations should be strategically leveraging cloud skills development if they want to build a culture of cloud and maximize their cloud investments."

The Need for Multicloud Skills Development

Organizations on the path to multicloud need to invest in skills development — but where should they begin?

The report reveals the top in-demand skills and skills gaps across cloud roles in 2023:

■ Artificial intelligence and machine learning skills are the most in-demand cloud skills (23%) in 2023, up from 16% in 2023. In last year's report, data analytics skills were the most in-demand (33%), but fewer technologists (18%) ranked it as an in-demand skill in 2023.

■ The largest cloud skills gaps exist in data, analytics, engineering, and storage (42%), followed by security and governance (37%). In 2022, automation and DevOps were cited as the most glaring skills gaps (30%).

As data and AI-based solutions continue to dominate the tech landscape, it's increasingly important for cloud practitioners to be fluent in these skill sets. The report makes it clear that these skill areas will continue to be a huge focus in 2023. To bridge these skills gaps, organizations must lean into developing their technology teams so they are equipped to keep pace with the rapidly changing tech landscape

Methodology: Survey results from more than 1,000 technologists and leaders in the United States, Europe, Australia, and India on the most current trends and challenges in cloud strategy and learning.

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Multicloud Skills Are Critical, But Lacking

Organizations are hindered by a large multicloud skills gap, according to the 2023 State of Cloud Report from Pluralsight.

The findings underscore how critical cloud skills development is for organizations to ensure the multicloud reward outweighs the risk.


A Hasty Rush to Multicloud

In 2023, multicloud strategies are becoming increasingly commonplace, with more than 65% of organizations currently operating within multicloud environments and another 20% saying they're actively pursuing an additional cloud platform for their cloud environment.

However, in the rush toward multicloud architectures, many organizations are finding themselves underprepared and lacking resources to succeed. The report found that:

■ Only 20% of organizations have defined a cloud security strategy while another 28% are working to build one.

■ To compound the problem, only 9% have extensive experience with more than one cloud provider.

There is good news, though — 71% of leaders expect their cloud budgets to increase over the next 12 months and 74% of leaders expect their cloud skills development budgets to increase in parallel.

Organizations should be strategically leveraging cloud skills development if they want to build a culture of cloud and maximize their cloud investments

"Learners are struggling to keep up with such a fast-paced cloud evolution," said Drew Firment, Chief Cloud Strategist at Pluralsight. "As a result, most organizations still lack the maturity to operationalize multicloud computing, and this year's research findings make that clear. Organizations should be strategically leveraging cloud skills development if they want to build a culture of cloud and maximize their cloud investments."

The Need for Multicloud Skills Development

Organizations on the path to multicloud need to invest in skills development — but where should they begin?

The report reveals the top in-demand skills and skills gaps across cloud roles in 2023:

■ Artificial intelligence and machine learning skills are the most in-demand cloud skills (23%) in 2023, up from 16% in 2023. In last year's report, data analytics skills were the most in-demand (33%), but fewer technologists (18%) ranked it as an in-demand skill in 2023.

■ The largest cloud skills gaps exist in data, analytics, engineering, and storage (42%), followed by security and governance (37%). In 2022, automation and DevOps were cited as the most glaring skills gaps (30%).

As data and AI-based solutions continue to dominate the tech landscape, it's increasingly important for cloud practitioners to be fluent in these skill sets. The report makes it clear that these skill areas will continue to be a huge focus in 2023. To bridge these skills gaps, organizations must lean into developing their technology teams so they are equipped to keep pace with the rapidly changing tech landscape

Methodology: Survey results from more than 1,000 technologists and leaders in the United States, Europe, Australia, and India on the most current trends and challenges in cloud strategy and learning.

Hot Topics

The Latest

According to Auvik's 2025 IT Trends Report, 60% of IT professionals feel at least moderately burned out on the job, with 43% stating that their workload is contributing to work stress. At the same time, many IT professionals are naming AI and machine learning as key areas they'd most like to upskill ...

Businesses that face downtime or outages risk financial and reputational damage, as well as reducing partner, shareholder, and customer trust. One of the major challenges that enterprises face is implementing a robust business continuity plan. What's the solution? The answer may lie in disaster recovery tactics such as truly immutable storage and regular disaster recovery testing ...

IT spending is expected to jump nearly 10% in 2025, and organizations are now facing pressure to manage costs without slowing down critical functions like observability. To meet the challenge, leaders are turning to smarter, more cost effective business strategies. Enter stage right: OpenTelemetry, the missing piece of the puzzle that is no longer just an option but rather a strategic advantage ...

Amidst the threat of cyberhacks and data breaches, companies install several security measures to keep their business safely afloat. These measures aim to protect businesses, employees, and crucial data. Yet, employees perceive them as burdensome. Frustrated with complex logins, slow access, and constant security checks, workers decide to completely bypass all security set-ups ...

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Cloudbrink's Personal SASE services provide last-mile acceleration and reduction in latency

In MEAN TIME TO INSIGHT Episode 13, Shamus McGillicuddy, VP of Research, Network Infrastructure and Operations, at EMA discusses hybrid multi-cloud networking strategy ... 

In high-traffic environments, the sheer volume and unpredictable nature of network incidents can quickly overwhelm even the most skilled teams, hindering their ability to react swiftly and effectively, potentially impacting service availability and overall business performance. This is where closed-loop remediation comes into the picture: an IT management concept designed to address the escalating complexity of modern networks ...

In 2025, enterprise workflows are undergoing a seismic shift. Propelled by breakthroughs in generative AI (GenAI), large language models (LLMs), and natural language processing (NLP), a new paradigm is emerging — agentic AI. This technology is not just automating tasks; it's reimagining how organizations make decisions, engage customers, and operate at scale ...

In the early days of the cloud revolution, business leaders perceived cloud services as a means of sidelining IT organizations. IT was too slow, too expensive, or incapable of supporting new technologies. With a team of developers, line of business managers could deploy new applications and services in the cloud. IT has been fighting to retake control ever since. Today, IT is back in the driver's seat, according to new research by Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) ...

In today's fast-paced and increasingly complex network environments, Network Operations Centers (NOCs) are the backbone of ensuring continuous uptime, smooth service delivery, and rapid issue resolution. However, the challenges faced by NOC teams are only growing. In a recent study, 78% state network complexity has grown significantly over the last few years while 84% regularly learn about network issues from users. It is imperative we adopt a new approach to managing today's network experiences ...

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From growing reliance on FinOps teams to the increasing attention on artificial intelligence (AI), and software licensing, the Flexera 2025 State of the Cloud Report digs into how organizations are improving cloud spend efficiency, while tackling the complexities of emerging technologies ...