HW #9

I read the article called “How Cloud Computing is Changing Many Job Descriptions” by Joe McKendrick published on 12/26/2011 on Forbes.  I found it interesting because the article talks about how cloud computing is changing the nature of jobs in the information technology department as well in other parts of the enterprise.  Greg Shields is a partner and principal technologist with Concentrated Technology who talked about how the best and most cost-effective solutions have been built and tested somewhere else.  “You don’t grow your own food.  You don’t raise your own cows anymore for meat.  You go to the grocery store because somebody’s figured out that I can create this experience that is the grocery store, and I can do it at a lower cost, both in time and in dollar cost.”  According to McKendrick, “a majority of 685 CIOs surveyed, 54%, believe that cloud computing has enabled them to spend more time on business strategy and innovation.  Approximately 71% who have adopted cloud computing see their position as a viable path to pursue other management roles, compared to only 44% of non-cloud adopting CIOs.”  Because of the shift to cloud, now there is a demand for managers and professionals who are more focused on business development rather than on application development.  Cloud is now forming the core of the job descriptions.  This helps bridge the gap between the business and IT.  According to Kevin Daley, “cloud will help increase the speed of development and change.  The business architect will be called upon to ensure the strategic relevancy of transformation in a repeatable fashion as cycle times and rollouts happen.”  New job titles now include Cloud Specialist, Cloud Computing Architect, Systems Engineer – Cloud Computing, Lead Software Developer – Cloud Computing Focused, Cloud Architect – Infrastructure, Cloud Alliance Manager and Virtualization & Cloud Computing Subject Matter Expert.  I think that because technology is changing every day, jobs have to change as well.  I feel that since cloud computing is only going to become more popular and make things easier for people, the jobs should focus on the business part more which is why they have been changing.  Amazon Web Services is the largest public cloud provider which just shows how many people are using cloud services right now.