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.

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Every few years, the cybersecurity industry adopts a new buzzword. "Zero Trust" has endured longer than most — and for good reason. Its promise is simple: trust nothing by default, verify everything continuously. Yet many organizations still hesitate to implement Zero Trust Network Access (ZTNA). The problem isn't that ZTNA doesn't work. It's that it's often misunderstood ...

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Why AI Is No Longer Optional for IT Operations

The rise of hybrid cloud environments, the explosion of IoT devices, the proliferation of remote work, and advanced cyber threats have created a monitoring challenge that traditional approaches simply cannot meet. IT teams find themselves drowning in a sea of data, struggling to identify critical threats amidst a deluge of alerts, and often reacting to incidents long after they've begun. This is where AI and ML are leveraged ...

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The Changing World of Application Delivery (and why it pays to have choices)

Getting applications into the hands of those who need them quickly and securely has long been the goal of a branch of IT often referred to as End User Computing (EUC). Over recent years, the way applications (and data) have been delivered to these "users" has changed noticeably. Organizations have many more choices available to them now, and there will be more to come ... But how did we get here? Where are we going? Is this all too complicated? ...

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