Developments in new-age technologies are becoming the norm in the global IT & ITES industry. While the lion’s share of focus remains on Artificial Intelligence (AI), other verticals are also becoming more relevant by the day. For instance, Cloud Computing is becoming increasingly critical to operational agility in the industry, with the global market capitalisation estimated to reach $2.1 trillion by 2030, growing at an annualised rate of 20.4% until then. The focus on AI, along with other verticals like big data and Machine Learning (ML), is proving to be a critical contributor in this growth, as establishing scalable and high-performance cloud infrastructure is becoming an era-appropriate demand.

Despite the yearly increase in demand, talent supply is witnessing tremendous difficulties. As a result, the industry is witnessing adverse impacts in terms of attracting new talent who are adequately equipped with the technology, especially in the practical application aspect. One of the major reasons behind this is the dependence on theoretical concepts, whereas the industry constituents are increasingly looking for real-life experience. Hence, several major corporations have instituted in-house training, but these introductions are falling short in helping the industry move forward. This concerning factor has been identified by corporations globally, and integration of practical experiences is being considered the bridge in this gap during the learning phase of talent themselves.

Understanding the major gaps

Unlike many technologies, new-age tech requires understanding much beyond the fundamental concepts. For instance, companies are more interested in new talent that has hands-on experience in a multi-cloud model. This is particularly because the majority of businesses out there are following a hybrid cloud strategy that encompasses a multi-cloud technology. However, the vast majority of learners receive restricted learning in single cloud platforms such as Azure, Google Cloud, or AWS. This constitutes a significant deficit in understanding other platforms and poses a critical lack of operational agility.

Furthermore, security and compliance remain one of the major priorities for businesses. Despite the importance, learning processes often do not provide much focus on this part, leading to learners having only a low understanding of implementing security protocols, ensuring HIPAA / GDPR regulations, or access. Additionally, the current learning process only offers theoretical or very thin practical knowledge on Continuous Integration or Continuous Delivery principles. They also do not receive adequate training on important tools like Terraform, Kubernetes, Docker, or Ansible. These tools are considered hypercritical for automating deployments, along with the management of infrastructure in the form of code.

An underrated part of the learning gaps that is facing both the students and the industry is the understanding of cost optimisation management. While learners are taught to design solutions at a fundamental level, what they are not exposed to is understanding how to manage a budget in a cloud environment. This aspect remains of paramount interest, particularly since cloud services often operate on a pay-as-you-go model. This is where learners’ understanding of FinOps becomes a useful skill that helps them manage the overall budget.

Furthermore, there are numerous problems with how students are learning cloud technologies. For example, many learners of today are not adept at troubleshooting and debugging, despite having the required understanding of the building blocks. The current model of learning Cloud technologies does not focus on teaching learners to build and maintain IaC pipelines, or handling drift and deploy changes in a recurring way.

Scope of employment

As mentioned before, there is no dearth of demand in the global IT & ITES industry for professionals who have adept training in cloud technologies. However, corporations are faced with the aforementioned challenges while hiring new talent. This is where the upcoming talents are presented with a unique opportunity. By identifying and working on the gaps mentioned earlier, they stand to gain the most in terms of securing professionally fulfilling employment opportunities. These job roles could be between junior to senior levels, depending on their understanding of the technology and its real-life opportunities.

Talents with adept understanding and training can become a Cloud Architect, a senior role that entails designing and overseeing the cloud strategy of different organizations. In this role, professionals would need an in-depth understanding of diverse cloud platforms, along with compliance, security, and networking, as business requirements. By bridging the gaps in their training, they can also become Cloud Engineers, or Cloud Security Engineers, as well as pursue roles as Cloud Developer, DevOps Engineer, and Cloud Consultant. All of these roles require a deep understanding of DevOps, automation, building cloud-native applications, programming skills, migration strategies, cloud adoption, and optimization.

Looking ahead

As the global IT industry evolves based on the new-age requirements, the cloud market is also expected to mature significantly. While the talent supply and demand mismatch has become a concern at the moment, industry constituents and others are taking reactive action to bridge this gap. The digitization of business operations, as well as garnering operational agility, will soon help to transform how cloud technologies are taught to learners, and such developments will help the industry to grow in a more inclined way. The onus here falls on educators on aligning with the industry requirements for the mutual betterment of students, as well as the sector itself, and many developments can be expected in the coming years in this regard.

(Arun Prakash M is the Founder & CEO of HCL GUVI)

Published – September 10, 2025 01:24 pm IST