Introduction

Cloud computing has arrived in full force, and it's here to stay. Businesses are looking to capitalize on cloud infrastructure.

• Public cloud services end-user spending worldwide was forecast to reach $1.04 trillion in 2025, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23.7% from 2021 to 2025

• For 2024, IDC forecasts cloud infrastructure spending to grow 19.3% compared to 2023 to $129.9 billion

• Long-term, IDC predicts spending on cloud infrastructure to have a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.8% over the 2023-2028 forecast period, reaching $199.1 billion in 2028

• Shared cloud infrastructure spending is expected to account for 71.8% of total cloud spending in 2028, growing at a 12.8% CAGR and reaching $143.0 billion

• Spending on dedicated cloud infrastructure is expected to grow at a CAGR of 12.9% to $56.1 billion by 2028

• Federal IT budget for cloud computing reached $83 billion in FY 2025

Yet a recent study found that nearly three quarters of IT decision makers (71%) believe their organizations have lost revenue due to a lack of cloud expertise. Where’s the disconnect?

Technology continues to spread at a rapid pace, but our workforce is struggling to adapt. People are not learning new skills fast enough, slowing down cloud adoption that's costing companies in lost time and revenue.

Are you preparing to move your company to the cloud? Make sure your workforce is tooled up to make the transition.

We've researched and compiled the top 5 cloud skills your workforce needs for a smooth transformation:

Top 5 Cloud Skills Your Workforce Needs Now

1 | Cloud Security

While there is an abundance of cloud vendors, security is still the responsibility of the organization. Providers typically operate under a shared responsibility model meaning businesses cannot solely rely on vendors to ensure top-level cloud security.

Your IT teams need to have the skills to maintain all aspects of cloud security. To keep your organization is protected, your team should learn how to utilize various cloud security tools offered by popular vendors like Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure.

2 | Database Management

The world produces nearly 2.5 quintillion bytes of data created every day. That is a ton of data businesses need to process and manage. Due to its favorable scalability, the cloud has become the preferred location to store data collected by companies.

Knowing how to store, manage, and access data stored in the cloud are essential skills your IT professionals should have to execute a sustainable cloud strategy. Without these skills, it's nearly impossible to derive insights that drive better business outcomes. Employees should also have a working knowledge of key database languages like SQL, MySQL, and Hadoop.

3 | AI & Machine Learning

The cloud offers companies the opportunity to leverage big data to improve their business operations and outcomes. However, business leaders need an efficient way to gain insights from large quantities of data that drive business decisions. Artificial Intelligence techniques provide new ways to find answers fast.

As you consider deploying AI technologies that complement your cloud infrastructure, make sure your workforce is trained in the necessary AI techniques. You do not necessarily need the capability to develop in-house AI solutions but, you do need the skills to utilize and maintain vendor solutions.

4 | Cloud Migration

Enterprises are pushing to migrate their applications to a full cloud or hybrid systems as fast as possible. Yet, when they finally make the move their businesses only use select features without fully adopting the cloud due to challenges caused by significant skills gaps.

Why is it crucial for employees to have skills in cloud migration? Cloud migration has its own risks and is not an easy process. The goal for organizations is to migrate their applications and operations to the cloud while fully complying with the business' security, infrastructure, and environment requirements. Your business needs to be able to smoothly transition all of these factors from its original infrastructure to the new cloud-based infrastructure. This process requires its own unique set of hard and soft skills.

Improper migration processes often lead to business downtime and data vulnerability. Before you begin the migration process, you will want to ensure that your team has working knowledge across multiple cloud platforms, like AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud.

5 | Container Support

As a part of cloud migration, many organizations are adopting container technology. Containers are more agile than their traditional counterparts. According to The Annual Container Adoption Survey, containers allow companies to easily "virtualize applications, develop and deploy microservices, which makes operations more efficient by default."

Your cloud professionals should know how to leverage multiple container tools that allow them to deploy and manage cloud solutions in real time. Such tools include Docker, Amazon ECS, Google Container Engine, Azure Container Service, Kubernetes.

Is Your Workforce Prepared for the Cloud?

Now that you know which skills are essential for cloud transformation you need to identify whether or not your workforce has these skills.

You need a tool that can help you identify gaps in your workforce. Skills planning is designed to provide a snapshot of the current skills and capabilities of your workforce. This productive tool can help quickly determine if your workforce is ready for a cloud transformation. Once you've addressed any skills gaps, skills planning can also help you visualize and manage the changes your workforce undergoes as they adopt new cloud skills.

Implementing cloud infrastructure requires a heavy uplifting of tools, processes, and skills. If you want to see profitable results from your transformation efforts, check that your workforce is prepared to make the transition. Don’t let a skills gap slow you down. Plan ahead, identify your gaps, and strengthen your skills and capabilities before you make your move to the cloud.

Ready to invest in the future of your workforce?

Learn how Visual Workforce can help you discover and optimize the skills and capabilities of your people, teams, and projects.