devopsy.kinsta.cloud

Tag: skills gap

  • Bridging the Multi-Cloud, DevOps Skills Gap

    Bridging the Multi-Cloud, DevOps Skills Gap

    The cloud is driving a digital transformation revolution throughout the world, as traditional “brick and mortar” companies morph into software companies. This is easy to see with retailers and publishers, but it’s also happening at companies such as ZipCar, Boeing and Liberty Mutual (more about them later). This transformation, while driving radical performance and cost improvements, has caused the skills gap to widen substantially as businesses struggle to find top developer talent—competing with the likes of traditional software companies such as Google and Microsoft. I attend the Cloud Foundry Summit in Boston to verify my assumptions.

    The diversity of offerings of cloud products has opened up a variety of possibilities, and one specific usage is on the rise: the multi-cloud strategy. This means that a company is using multiple cloud providers to host its services. There are numbers of reasons to do this: to take advantage of price differences, distribute the traffic to serve different geographical regions or as part of a disaster recovery plan, to name a few.

    Having a multi-cloud infrastructure brings a lot of complexity and challenges. Fortunately, solutions such as Cloud Foundry are designed to help companies embrace what the cloud industry has to offer, including the multi-cloud aspect. Cloud Foundry has actually seen a 12 percent increase in adoption from 2017 to 2018, and 42 percent of its users consider themselves developers or DevOps engineers.

    The 2018 GitHub developer survey confirms the trend: “DevOps and machine learning are important trends in the software industry today. Languages and frameworks associated with these kinds of works are on the rise, and developers working in these areas command the highest salaries.” DevOps engineers are not only the second most well-paid developers, but they are also among the ones with the most experience.

    DevOps engineers or site reliability engineers (SREs) are a rare type of talent, because these professionals need a wide range of knowledge within the software scope—more specifically, development skills and infrastructure/system administration skills. The fact that DevOps engineers are generally more experienced is because most people start as developers and then end up learning about infrastructure on the job, and this takes time. And our education system is to blame.

    Most computer science degree programs do not focus on practical computer science and software development. System administration skills are often not covered at all, so there are hardly any graduates taking on this type of position. As a result, many engineers learn on the job rather than during their degree programs.

    I heard time and again from attendees at Cloud Foundry Summit how difficult it is to find talent. When I asked about students graduating from colleges (even top colleges), they universally responded that new graduates were far “too green,” required months of training and were not familiar with or attracted to the DevOps/SRE career path.

    Taos, a prominent Silicon Valley IT consulting and services provider, is among some that are getting creative when it comes to attracting and developing quality DevOps talent. “Our customers are increasingly investing in projects that require engineers trained in cloud technologies and DevOps,” said Trish Palumbo, vice president of Talent at Taos. “To meet the demand, we look for knowledge-seekers with a baseline of CS fundamentals to join the Taos DevOps Bootcamp.” The training is free and students get paid to attend.

    As more businesses digitally transform, more developer talent will be needed. The Cloud Foundry Foundation has been aware of this skills gap for some time, having published a full report on the topic in 2016. The foundation continues to work hard to close this gap by hosting summits where developers can take training sessions, participate in a hack-athon and learn about a career in DevOps, while networking with experienced developers and organizations seeking talent. Cloud Foundry Summit is a crucial event for organizations in need of digital transformation, as this is one of the best industry conferences to meet top-tier talent.

    — Sylvain Kalache

  • How to Bridge the Developer Gap

    How to Bridge the Developer Gap

    It’s time to bring cloud application development back into the organization and bridge the developer gap by training your own people.

    For years, companies have outsourced many IT functions, treating computing as a commodity, perhaps thanks in large part to Nick Carr’s publication, “IT Doesn’t Matter.” Carr predicted that computing would become a utility. And while spinning up new servers in the cloud might be almost as simple as switching on a light, the functions specific to your business—your competitive DNA—aren’t flipping on automatically. Not even close.

    Computing is not a commodity. It’s the cognitive engine of your business. The companies that are killing it right now view their computing environments the way we look at the human brain and nervous system. Their businesses generate, collect and process signals, and act on the intelligence influenced by those signals. Case in point: GE is building its own operating system—a central nervous system for its industrial applications. This is large-scale cognition.

    You would not outsource your brain or spinal cord. You couldn’t survive without those crucial components of your overall nervous system. Yet for decades, companies outsourced key functions—technology and processes for understanding their businesses—because they didn’t think of technology as a core competency.

    Now that they’re bringing it back in-house, companies are faced with another problem: a looming developer gap. The majority (64 percent) of IT professionals and executives taking part in the Cloud Foundry’s 2016 Identifying the Developer Gap report agreed that the developer shortage is a real threat. Most respondents (57 percent) state that this shortage has already impacted their ability to hire skilled people.

    Every new technology comes with a labor gap. The way to close the cloud application skills gap is to bring the knowledge back into the organization—to train people who are part of the central nervous system of your business.

    Business computing in the digital world is not just a faster way to process paper. When you think of your organization as an organism and integrate intelligence from all its parts, you behave more intelligently. Building apps to enable that integration is the difference between treating computing as a commodity vs. cognition.

    Our study showed that by a nearly 2:1 margin, companies are choosing training over hiring or outsourcing as the preferred method for addressing a shortage of skills in their own companies. I have had multiple conversations with CIOs in the last two months in which they have said, “We have this working with a team of 40 developers. Now we need to make it work for 1,000. We aim to certify over 200,000 developers on Cloud Foundry in the next three years.”

    The best way to bridge this developer gap is to train your own people. Think of them as essential parts of the whole. Enable them to use technology to adapt and streamline your business so you can compete in the digital world.

    About the Author / Sam Ramji

    samramjiSam Ramji is CEO of the Cloud Foundry Foundation. A 20-year veteran of the Silicon Valley and Seattle technology scenes, Sam brings a wealth of business, product and open source experience to the foundation. He was head of strategy for API powerhouse Apigee, designed and led Microsoft’s open source strategy, and drove product strategy for BEA WebLogic Integration. Previously he held a range of software engineering positions at firms including Broderbund, Fair Isaac and Ofoto. He is a member of multiple industry advisory boards and volunteers with the Sierra Club. Sam is happiest in the mountains, where he loves to hike, run and play with his dog. In his spare time, he likes to play guitar, read fantasy and sci-fi novels, and spend time with his wife. Connect with him on Twitter.