Cloud Computing Careers: Job Roles and Key Skills Needed for 2021

 

Key Role of Cloud Computing Employees 

 

Cloud computing is now among the most in-demand skills globally, particularly due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 that made cloud-native systems a must-have for businesses. LinkedIn’s 2020 Workplace Learning Report mentioned cloud computing as the second-most important hard skill employers require after blockchain technology. 

 

You can sum up the role of cloud computing employees as managing the end-to-end lifecycle of a cloud environment, including designing applications for the cloud, planning the cloud architecture, adapting security measures, provisioning resources, and maintaining cloud components. Typically, there are dedicated professionals for each of these duties. Some of these tasks are segregated into sub-roles – for example, designing applications for the cloud involves DevOps, containerization experts, and cloud testers. 

 

Anyone who wants to make a career in cloud computing should first understand the different job roles that the cloud computing industry offers. Research is key here – refer to different books or articles, go to different Q&A forums, read what your peers are saying, talk to your supervisors and seniors at work, and take stock of the various perspectives. After doing the groundwork, choose a role that sounds exciting to you.

 

To work in this domain, following these steps can benefit aspirants:

• Build a strong foundation: No matter which position you apply for, companies are more likely to hire professionals with a sound knowledge of basic cloud concepts. Before you start applying, spend a few weeks familiarizing yourself with the types of cloud, the top-most cloud service providers in the industry, cloud architecture, and storage, among other aspects.
• Get hands-on experience: Make sure you get some hands-on practice operating and managing a cloud platform, whether through a short-term internship or a free online trial. The AWS Free Tier is a great place to start.
• Familiarize yourself with the current issues: Learn about upcoming technologies in the cloud and the current challenges that the industry is facing. The digital world is forever morphing — what is relevant today may not be relevant tomorrow. Technology changes with every passing minute, and it is therefore important to keep updating your knowledge in this industry.
• Get the relevant certifications: After understanding the roles, learn about the various certifications you’ll require for the job role of your interest. Today, leading cloud vendors like Microsoft and Amazon offer various certification programs for different roles. However, it’s important to choose the right one. For instance, an AWS Cloud Practitioner Certification is great for someone starting their career. However, a professional with a few years of experience will benefit more from the AWS Certified Solution Architect – Associate certification. A few other options for beginners include Microsoft Certified Azure Fundamentals, Google Cloud Platform Fundamentals for AWS Professionals, CompTIA Cloud Essentials, and Certificate of Cloud Security Knowledge.

You can either choose to specialize in the services of one cloud vendor or build multi-platform expertise. While the first approach will lead to becoming a valued expert in a single platform, the other will ensure that you have a broad-based appeal as a versatile candidate in the market. The choice is completely yours.

 

Learn More: Top 10 Cloud Computing Certifications and Courses in 2021

 

Typical Job Levels and Responsibilities

 

If you’re exploring a career in cloud computing, there are several job levels and responsibilities to explore. Let’s look at each one in detail.

Job Roles in the Cloud Industry

 

1. Cloud administrator

 

Cloud administrators are responsible for system configuration, maintenance, and provisioning as per the set parameters. Like cloud engineers, cloud administrators require three to five years of experience – but this role is focused more on day-to-day operations than on engineering changes. As a cloud administrator, you will be expected to know the major scripting languages, remote monitoring tools, troubleshooting, and configuration management. 

 

The main responsibility of professionals in this role is to work with the IT department to develop and support Windows, cloud, or Unix infrastructure. They are also responsible for providing technical assistance for cloud-based systems and resolving any operational problems. 

 

Here’s a list of certifications that cloud administration aspirants should consider:

• • AWS Certified SysOps Administrators
  • Google Apps Certified Administrator
  • Microsoft Certified Solutions Expert
  • Cloud Credential Council – Professional Cloud Administrator Certification
  • HP ATP – Cloud Administrator V1
  • VMware Certified Cloud Professional
  • Certified OpenStack Administrator
    

2. Cloud developer

 

This role is the next level in your career as a cloud computing professional, requiring two to three years of experience in app development or managing cloud environments. A cloud application developer creates software platforms that run on the cloud, either as SaaS-based web apps or platforms hosted in a private cloud. 

 

Cloud developers take on responsibilities that are more commonly associated with technicians, architects, engineers, or analysts, along with application development. Recruiters look for hands-on development experience on major cloud platforms, such as Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services, and Google Cloud, when hiring a cloud developer. The more development tools and programming languages you know, the higher your chances of landing a job in this role. DevOps skills are all the more critical for this job role, along with a knack for continuous integration and delivery. 

 

The following certifications are beneficial for aspiring cloud developers:

• • AWS Certified Developer – Associate or Professional
  • Salesforce Certified Platform Developer
  • Microsoft Certified Azure Developer Associate
  • Google Certified Professional Cloud Developer

Also Read: What Is Hybrid Cloud? Definition, Architecture, and Management Best Practices for 2021

 

3. Cloud engineer

 

At this level, you are gradually specializing in cloud technology and must be well-versed in optimization tactics to gain maximum value from the cloud. Cloud engineers should have at least three to five years of experience, and familiarity with application programming interfaces (APIs), integration design, and cloud database management. Cloud engineers mainly address the technical issues of a cloud platform. They are responsible for various tasks related to cloud, such as planning, maintenance, and support. 

 

Cloud engineers are expected to be familiar with programming languages such as Java and Python. Recruiters commonly look for previous experience in developing and designing cloud-based web services when hiring for this position. Some hands-on experience with OpenStack, AWS, Linux, Microsoft Azure, and Dockers gives these professionals an edge in the market. Experience with DevOps, APIs, and automation is also beneficial. 

 

Stefano Bellasio, CEO, Cloud Academy, further classifies the role into the following sub-roles:

1. Software Engineer: Builds features and fixes bugs in any type of application.
2. Security Engineer: Provides expertise to protect the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of both systems and application data.
3. DevOps Engineer: Responsible for development operations and system operations in the enterprise.
4. Data Engineer: Develops, constructs, and tests the large databases and the scalable data processing systems that data scientists need to do their jobs.
5. Full-Stack Engineer: Works throughout all phases of the software development lifecycle: writing, testing, and maintaining the code that powers highly scalable cloud applications.
6. QA Engineer: Prevents critical incidents and mitigates support requests by testing existing systems, documenting recovery timelines, communicating with all levels of leadership, and compiling reports.

Certification options for cloud engineers include:

• • AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional
  • Cisco Certified Network Professional – Cloud
  • Google Cloud Certified Associate Cloud Engineer 

4. Cloud architect

 

The role of a cloud architect is a strategic one, requiring several years of expertise (often more than a decade). Cloud architects are tasked with envisioning a company’s cloud landscape before migration or implementation, coming up with the end-to-end blueprint, which will serve as the execution map for cloud engineers, app developers, security professionals, and administrators.

 

A cloud architect makes important decisions regarding a company’s cloud computing strategy. They are responsible for overseeing a company’s cloud adoption plans, cloud application design, and cloud management and monitoring. A cloud architect has to keep themselves updated about the current trends in the industry so that they can keep environments running more efficiently. They should be able to develop a future-proof cloud computing strategy for an organization depending on business needs. Considering that the issue of application portability across cloud platforms is one of the biggest that companies face today, developing one’s knowledge about containers is a must for this role. 

 

Here’s a list of certifications that cloud architects can choose from:

• • AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate or Professional
  • Google Certified Professional Cloud Architect
  • IBM Certified Cloud Solution Architect
  • Red Hat Certified Cloud Architect

Also Read: The Top 5 Cloud Computing Books to Read in 2021 

 

5. Cloud security professional

 

This role involves the management of cloud security either for your own enterprise or for a client organization. Cloud security professionals can work with developers to ensure that security is woven into the fabric of cloud apps. To become a cloud security professional, you need formal training and industry certifications. Prior experience may or may not be required. 

 

To prepare for a career as a cloud security professional, you can explore the following certifications: 

• • Certificate of Cloud Security Knowledge (CCSK) by the Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) 
  • Certified Cloud Security Professional (CCSP) by ISC2 
  • The Cloud Security Engineer Professional Certificate offered by Google Cloud 
  • Courses offered by the Global Information Assurance Certification (GIAC) body, including: 

– GIAC Cloud Security Essentials (GCLD)

 

– GIAC Cloud Security Automation (GCSA)

 

– GIAC Public Cloud Security (GPCS)

 

– GIAC Cloud Penetration Tester (GCPN)

 

6. Digital skills officer

 

A cloud computing expert might choose to specialize in learning & development (L&D), helping organizations address cloud skill gaps. Digital skills officers are highly demanded among independent software vendors (ISVs) and managed service providers (MSPs). They provide training support along with their cloud-based software and service offerings.  

 

To become a digital skills officer, you typically require a few years of hands-on experience in a cloud role and experience in an L&D position or equivalent certification. While there aren’t too many courses specifically geared for this role, here are a few to explore: 

• Become a Cloud Trainer Course by the ROI Training Institute 
• Google Cloud Platform Authorized Trainer Certification by Google or an affiliated organization
• Adaptable Cloud Education Leader Certification by L-Cloud

7. Chief cloud officer

 

Finally, the chief cloud officer or CCO is part of the C-suite, responsible for defining the high-level strategic direction for cloud development. Companies with cloud-based products or leveraging the cloud to deliver services (for example, ecommerce) typically have a CCO who brings several decades of experience. You can augment your industry and business experience with strategic learning tracks like the following: 

• Cloud Computing for Business Leaders (an executive program by Udacity) 
• The Cloud & DevOps: Continuous Transformation course by MIT Online 
• Courses by the Cloud Academy such as:
• Cloud Adoption Framework — Cloud Skills for Executive Teams
• Cloud Financial Management — Beyond Just Optimization
• Business-focused courses by Google Cloud such as: 
• Cloud Digital Leader Certification 
• Business Transformation with Google Cloud Learning Path

What does AWS mean by Cost Optimization?

 

There are many things that AWS actively try to help you with — and cost optimization is one of them. Cost optimization simply defined comes down to helping you reduce your cloud spend in specific areas, without impacting on the efficacy of your architecture and how it functions. Cost optimization is one of the pillars in the well architected framework, and we can use it to help us move towards a more streamlined, and cost efficient workload.

AWS Well-Architected Framework enables cloud architects to build fast, reliable, and secure infrastructures for a wide variety of workloads and applications. It is built around six pillars:

• Operational excellence
• Security
• Reliability
• Performance efficiency
• Cost optimization
• Sustainability

The Well-Architected Framework provides customers and partners with a consistent approach for evaluating architectures and implementing scalable designs on AWS. It is applicable for use whether you are a burgeoning start-up or an enterprise corporation using the AWS Cloud.

In this article however, we are going to focus on exactly what is cost optimization, explore some key principles of how it is defined and demonstrate some use cases as to how it could help you when architecting your own AWS Solutions.

What is Cost Optimization?

Besides being one of the pillars on the Well Architected framework, Cost Optimization is a broad, yet simple term and is defined by AWS as follows:

“The Cost Optimization pillar includes the ability to run systems to deliver business value at the lowest price point.”

It provides a comprehensive overview of the general design principles, best practices, and questions related to cost optimization. Once understood, it can have a massive impact on how you are launching your various applications on AWS.

As well as a definition of what the Cost Optimization is there are some key design principles which we’ll explore in order to make sure we are on the right track with enhancing our workloads:

Implement Cloud Financial Management

In order to maximize the value of your cloud investment, cloud financial management/cost optimization is essential for achieving financial success and maximizing the value of your cloud investment. As your organization moves into this new era of technology and usage management, there is an imperative need for you to devote resources and time to developing capability in this new area. As with security or operational excellence, if you want to become a cost-efficient organization, you will have to build capability through knowledge building, programs, resources, and processes in a similar manner to how you would build capability for security.

Adopt a consumption model

If you want to save money on computing resources, it is important to pay only for what you require, and to increase or decrease usage based on the needs of the business, without relying on elaborate forecasting.

Measure overall efficiency

It is important to measure the business output of a workload as well as the costs associated with delivering that workload. You can use this measure to figure out what gains you will make if you increase output and reduce costs. Efficiency doesn’t also have to be just financially worthwhile to help get your cloud spend under control. It can also help any one server from becoming under or over utilized and help from a performance standpoint also.

Stop spending money on unnecessary activities

When it comes to data center operations, AWS handle everything from racks and stacks to powering servers and providing the racking itself. By utilizing managed services, you will also be able to remove the operational burden of managing operating systems as well as applications. The advantage of this method is that you are able to focus on your customers and your business projects rather than on your IT infrastructure.

Analyze and attribute expenditure

There is no doubt that the cloud allows for easy identification of the usage and cost of systems, which in turn allows for transparent attribution of IT costs to individual workload owners. Achieving this helps workload owners to measure the return on investment (ROI) of their investment as well as to reduce their costs and optimize their resources.

Now that we fully understand what we mean when we say ‘Cost Optimization on AWS’, we are going to show some ways that we can use cost optimization principles in order to improve the overall financial performance of our workloads on Amazon S3, and Amazon EC2:

Cost optimization on S3

Amazon S3 is an object-storage service which provides 11 Nines of Durability, and near infinite, low-cost object storage. There are a number of ways to even further optimize your costs, and ensure you are adhering to the Cost Optimization pillar of the Well Architected Framework.

S3 Intelligent Tiering

Amazon S3 Intelligent-Tiering is a storage class that is intended to optimize storage costs as well as provide users with an easy way to move data to the most cost-effective access tier as their usage patterns change over time. In the case of S3, Intelligent-Tiering monitors access patterns and, for a small monthly fee, automatically moves objects that have not been accessed to lower-cost access tiers. You can automatically save storage costs when you use S3 Intelligent-Tiering, which is a technology that provides low-latency and high-throughput access tiers to reduce storage costs. As a result of S3 Intelligent-Tiering storage class, it is possible to automatically archive data that is asynchronously accessible.

S3 Storage Class Analysis

Amazon S3 Storage Class Analysis analyses storage access patterns to help you decide when to transition the right data to the right storage class. This is a relatively new Amazon S3 analytics feature that monitors your data access patterns and tells you when data should be moved to a lower-cost storage class based on the frequency with which it is accessed.

Cost optimization on EC2

Amazon EC2 is simply a Virtual Machine in the cloud that can be scaled up, scaled down dynamically as your application grows. There are a number of ways you can optimize your spend on EC2 depending on your use case, whilst still delivering excellent performance.

Savings Plans

In exchange for a commitment to a specific instance family within the AWS Region (for example, C7 in US-West-2), EC2 Instance Savings Plans offer savings of up to 72 percent off on-demand.

EC2 Instance Savings Plans allow you to switch between instance sizes within the family (for example, from c5.xlarge to c5.2xlarge) or operating systems (such as from Windows to Linux), or change from Dedicated to Default tenancy, while continuing to receive the discounted rate.

If you are using large amounts of particular EC2 instances, buying a Savings Plan allows you to flexibly save money on your compute spend.

Right-sizing EC2 Instances

Right-sizing is about matching instance types and sizes to your workload performance and capacity needs at the lowest possible cost. Furthermore, it involves analyzing deployed instances and identifying opportunities to eliminate or downsize them without compromising capacity or other requirements.

The Amazon EC2 service offers a variety of instance types tailored to fit the needs of different users. There are a number of instance types that offer different combinations of resources such as CPU, memory, storage, and networking, so that you can choose the right resource mix for your application.

You can use Trusted Advisor to give recommendations on which particular EC2 instances are running at low utilization. This takes a lot of undifferentiated heavy lifting out of your hands as AWS tell you the exact instances you need to re-size.

Using Spot Capacity where possible

Spot capacity is spare capacity that AWS has within their data centers, which they provide to you for a large discount (up to 90%). The downside is that if a customer is willing to pay the on-demand price for this capacity, you will be given a 2-minute warning after which your instances will be terminated.

Applications requiring online availability are not well suited to spot instances. The use of Spot Instances is recommended for stateless, fault-tolerant, and flexible applications. A Spot Instance can be used for big data, containerized workloads, continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD), stateless web servers, high performance computing (HPC), and rendering workloads, as well as anything else which can be interrupted and requires low cost.

There are many considerations when it comes to optimizing cost on AWS, and the Cost Optimization pillar provides us all of the resources we need to be fully enabled in our AWS journey.

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The CloudHealth Basics

 

Learn about the basics of CloudHealth – what is cloud management, what are CloudHealth capabilities, and why should my cloud computing business care?

In prior blogs we have talked about the need for cloud management – customers are adopting multiple clouds to gain agility, flexibility, and control but still need to manage their cloud effectively. Without effective management, bad habits can develop, leading to an uncontrolled “sprawl” of assets that can result in spiraling costs, under-performance, and security flaws. Thus, the ideal cloud management model is exercising administrative control over the resources your business has deployed in the cloud in order to optimize cost, performance, and security.

Ref :https://blogs.vmware.com/cloudhealth/cloudhealth-basics/

The 10 AWS Cost Optimization Best Practices

 Users of Amazon Web Services are likely familiar with some AWS cost optimization best practices, but probably not all of them. Consequently, we have compiled a list of the ten best practices to optimize AWS costs, and also suggest a solution that ensures the costs of using Amazon Web Services remain optimized.

It’s not unusual to read headlines claiming businesses are overspending in the cloud, that a double-figure percentage of money is being wasted on unused services, or that millions of businesses provision resources with more capacity than they need. The most common “solutions” to the reported issues are rightsizing, scheduling, and purchasing Reserved Instances/Savings Plans for predictable workloads.

These three “solutions” are probably the AWS cost optimization best practices most AWS users are familiar with, but they’re not necessarily the “best” best practices. Sometimes they don’t save a fraction of the cost that it’s claimed they will, while plenty of other, often overlooked, AWS cost optimization best practices can save a lot more. This is an issue we aim to address below.

1. Rightsizing EC2 Instances

2. Scheduling on/off times

3. Purchasing Reserved Instances and Savings Plans

4. Delete unattached EBS volumes

5. Delete obsolete snapshots

6. Release unattached Elastic IP addresses

7. Upgrade instances to the latest generation

8. Purchase reserved nodes for Redshift and ElastiCache Services

9. Terminate zombie assets

10. Move infrequently-accessed data to lower cost tiers

(ref : https://blogs.vmware.com/cloudhealth/10-aws-cost-optimization-best-practices/)