What is DevOps and Cloud Adoption?

What is DevOps?

DevOps (a clipped compound of development and operations) is a culture, movement or practice that emphasizes the collaboration and communication of both software developers and other information-technology (IT) professionals while automating the process of software delivery and infrastructure changes.

Learn more with the Cloud Adoption Framework for small business.

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Will Oracle IaaS lure IT shops from public cloud leaders?

by
Trevor Jones

News Writer

Published: 21 Sep 2016

Oracle turns to bare metal and containers to craft an IaaS platform that's friendlier for enterprise scale-out, but is it compelling enough versus entrenched public cloud rivals?

SAN FRANCISCO -- Oracle is rearchitecting its cloud infrastructure to compete directly against Amazon farther down the stack -- but it's got lots to prove to sway enterprise customers from Amazon Web Services and other cloud platforms headed the opposite direction by getting into higher-level services.

Oracle is relaunching its infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) offering with what it describes as a second-generation public cloud platform to bring high availability and more traditional enterprise workloads to its cloud -- and leapfrog the core infrastructure components offered by AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform.
In the new architecture, introduced here at Oracle OpenWorld, the virtualization occurs at the network level, rather than the hypervisor, so customers can theoretically run any type of workload on top of the infrastructure. All the workloads run in fully private environments, too.
The capabilities on the platform will extend to virtual machines, engineered systems and containers in the coming months, but it is currently limited to bare metal, a popular technology for companies with especially compute-heavy workloads, such as gaming companies. Oracle isn't the first to offer bare metal; IBM SoftLayer is the most prominent platform already on the market.
Oracle has another tact to appeal to enterprise customers: Company execs said its IaaS offerings are not only better in terms of performance and security, but significantly cheaper in total ownership costs.

Inside pitch: Containers and bare metal in Oracle IaaS
Falkonry Inc., a Santa Clara, Calif., startup that provides artificial intelligence for operational data, looked for a place to run its containerized workloads due to displeasure with what was already on the market.
"We found that a number of more mature clouds are less well-designed for technologies that containers support," said Nikunj Mehta, Falkonry's founder and CEO.
Falkonry didn't look at SoftLayer, but it did use AWS and Google Cloud Platform before becoming an Oracle beta customer. The new Oracle architecture leapfrogs the rest of the public cloud market and simply ported over its workloads, Mehta said.
"People want bare metal because they require a lot of compute to run, and the variability in the performance because of noisy neighbors is very undesirable," Mehta said.
Most enterprises find virtualized environments sufficient for their compute needs, but industry observers indicated the bare metal also could serve as an easier onramp for more traditional scale-out workloads, such as database applications.
Another addition aimed at easing the transition to public cloud is the new Oracle Ravello Cloud Service based on the technology acquired from Ravello Systems earlier this year. The service provides nested virtualization to bring VMware workloads to Oracle IaaS and other public cloud platforms.
Those additions, along with the Cloud at Customer service for running a facsimile of Oracle's public cloud behind customers' own firewalls and the recent acquisition of cloud security vendor Palerra Inc., highlight Oracle's desire to make it as easy as possible for customers to adopt its cloud, said Holger Mueller, vice president and principal analyst with Constellation Research Inc.
"If you want to get in this game, and if you want to catch up to Amazon, you have to go faster than Amazon for many, many years," Mueller said. "You can only do that if you make it easier and are more enterprise-friendly to move the rest of the remaining on-premises loads to the cloud."

Bringing the fight to AWS

Catching up to AWS could mean spending tens of billions of dollars to build out its data center footprint and expand its offerings. Regardless, the slow rollout of the new Oracle IaaS offering shouldn't be construed as reticence, said Deepak Patil, an Oracle vice president of product development.

"We are building capabilities where provisioning a new data center is completely automated, so it doesn't require an army to expand into a new region," Patel said. "We're going to be very careful in really mastering that before we go absolutely aggressive going around the globe."
Amazon has made a heavy push to lure Oracle customers to AWS, either through hosting its databases or by migrating to its own services, such as Aurora and DynamoDB. Oracle CTO Larry Ellison dedicated much of his two OpenWorld keynote speeches to talking about how his company is going directly after AWS -- but that focus on infrastructure is misplaced, said John Rymer, vice president and principal analyst at Forrester Research.
Oracle's entire business model is based on high margins, while IaaS is a comparably low-margin business, Rymer said. For Oracle to succeed, it must focus on its applications and high-end database offerings in the cloud.
Oracle repeatedly referred to itself as the fastest-growing cloud company, with CEO Mark Hurd citing the 82% year-over-year growth in platform as a service (PaaS) and software as a service (SaaS). But Oracle IaaS is a different story, with only 10% growth over the same time period and only $171 million of the $969 billion in total cloud revenues, according to its latest quarterly report.
AWS, by comparison, generated nearly $2.9 billion in Amazon's most recently reported quarter, which represented 58% growth year over year. Amazon does not break out its IaaS, PaaS and SaaS numbers, though its infrastructure remains its biggest seller.
Oracle also doesn't release specifics on how many companies are using its first-generation IaaS, though there are "hundreds and hundreds" of users, Patil said.
The new cloud is being built by a team of several hundred cloud architects, many of whom helped build AWS, Azure and Google Cloud Platform. Oracle certainly has a lot of catching up to do, but the enterprise transition to the cloud is, so far, "only the tip of the iceberg," and building this new platform based on lessons learned from previous experiences should benefit those efforts, said Andrew Reichman, research vice president at 451 Research.
"It's great to be first to market, but it's pretty quick that you get trapped in the architecture you built and learn you might have wanted to do it a different way," Reichman said.
The new Oracle IaaS offering includes regions composed of at least three independent data centers located miles apart, with millisecond latency and up to 1 million cores in a single region. Currently, it is only available in the Phoenix region, but it will be extended to a Virginia region by January. Regions in Germany and England are expected to follow by the middle of next year, and expansion to Asia is slated for the end of 2017.

Linking Up Blockchain and Cloud

As more industries are finding use cases for Blockchain in the public cloud, here's how you can take advantage of this technology.

http://www.cloudtp.com/doppler/linking-blockchain-cloud/?utm_campaign=Blog%20Promotion&utm_content=39763209&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter

Blockchain is a public ledger system that can be used to record any kind of transaction. The ledgers are stored concurrently in multiple locations and communicate using a series of nodes, with entries that are cryptographically signed to prevent modification. Blockchain also provides an auditable trail of all transactions and removes the need for a trusted middleman to oversee them.

Bitcoin relies heavily on its underlying Blockchain technology. The Blockchain model illustrates the idea of not making a centralized authority responsible for saying what is true or what is false. Instead, multiple distributed parties come to consensus, and that consensus is stored in the ledger which thereafter can be accessed by anyone. It’s infeasible for a single entity (e.g., a business or person) to go back and modify history.

So, what are the use cases?

Real Estate

Real estate agents can work with businesses and people located thousands of miles away, even in other countries. The transitions would take place instantly, as if a team of lawyers were involved, and even more securely. The nature of Blockchain transactions could prevent real estate fraud and eliminate the need for third party escrow services.

Finance

Many use cases are found in the world of high finance. For example, transactions involving mega-trades for the purchase of a company could take place at the press of a button–again, with little risk around security or even legal issues.

Healthcare

Blockchain technology could also have a huge impact on the ability to track and protect personal healthcare data. Medical billing logs could approach the privacy issue from a financial angle. So not only will clinical data be protected, but the telling cost transactions as well, making it harder for insurance companies and healthcare institutions to make errors or commit fraud. Another use case could be consolidated medical records, or the ability to bring Electronic Health Records (EHR) to a centralized and secure place. Records could be created, shared and changed by multiple parties, creating complete transparency in one’s medical history. Prescription orders could also be verified by insurance providers and paid for through Blockchain; validating the type of drug and correct payment for the patient.

Music

The music industry is implementing Blockchain to take on problems regarding royalty and distribution rights. PeerTracks is a startup whose music streaming app will link all uploaded songs to Blockchain based smart contracts that designate payment to the lyricist, producer, performer, etc., based on the number of plays a song receives. PeerTracks also issues its own form of cryptocurrency called “artist tokens”. These are tokens artists can sell to early listeners to fund their hopeful rise to fame. A purchase of a token will link the listener to a smart contract that the artist can later pay out in perks, such as con- cert tickets. As the artist becomes more popular, the value of the token increases, incentivizing token holders to promote their favorite artists. Other startups like Ujo Music and Proof of Existence are also attempting to solve the age-old problem of protecting intellectual property, ensuring that creators get fair credit and value for their original works.

Many More

There are even applications that move beyond current ways of thinking. For example, after IBM purchased Weather.com, a weather data provider, they found that integrating weather data and forecasts with Blockchain technology could create an interesting new paradigm. According to IBM, more and more businesses are taking an interest in finding out more about the weather system. For instance, the ability to leverage weather data to determine its effects on the retail market, or the ability to get a humidity and temperature reading to determine the proper mix of chemicals for a manufacturing process. With Blockchain technology, IBM can offer different “tiers” of information, depending upon what consumers want. Blockchain is available at all times, to people all over the world, at no cost. Additionally, Blockchain can be used to store, transmit and share all types of data at a fraction of the cost of traditional solutions.

Blockchain and the Cloud

IBM has taken the lead in moving Blockchain applications to the cloud. Enterprises now have a secure IBM Cloud environment to develop Blockchain applications that will meet regulatory requirements.

IBM took elements of the Linux Foundation’s open source Hyperledger Project to develop this environment. Using these elements as the basis, they tested the code and certified the framework as secure.

Finally, IBM made all of it available in a dedicated environment within IBM’s Softlayer Cloud.

IBM’s approach to Blockchain leverages industry standards such as Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS 140-2), Evaluation Assurance Levels (EAL), Sarbanes-Oxley(SOX) Act, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) and, finally, theEuropean Union Protection Directive. IBM met its objective to provide government, financial services and healthcare organizations with an environment to securely build and use Blockchain networks.

According to an InfoWorld article on the topic: “The cloud services have been optimized for cloud-based Blockchain networks by providing an auditable operating environment with the comprehensive log data necessary for forensics and compliance. Cryptographic keys are secured in tamper-resistant storage. The modules also detect and respond to unauthorized attempts to access the keys. Members in a Blockchain network do not share any aspect of the operating environment, such as memory, disk drives or hardware, to prevent data or memory leakage.”

IBM is not the only Cloud/Blockchain game in town. Microsoft has been adding Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) offerings to the Azure marketplace. Microsoft also has a partnership with a consortium of more than 40 banks, including Goldman Sachs. These institutions have been granted open access to Azure and dedicated Microsoft staff to build their Blockchain applications. Microsoft has also worked with Ripple, a cryptographic ledger software vendor, and other startups to develop new Blockchain applications.

Why Cloud-Based Blockchain?

Core to the questions out there is that, if Blockchain needs the ultimate in security, why is public cloud a fit, such as the IBM and Microsoft solutions mentioned above?

There are a few key reasons why public cloud is the preferred platform:

• High performance computing and I/O is needed to manage the security processing requirements of Blockchain. Public clouds allow you to allocate as many instances as you like from a public cloud provider, and this elastic approach to scaling and de-scaling to support a secure translation is ideal for a Blockchain transaction.
• The pervasiveness of public cloud computing means that the node of a Blockchain system can be supported outside of the enterprise by a neutral third party, the public cloud provider. Moreover, this means that access is just as easy from a small business as a large one, because you’re only paying for the infrastructure by usage. This makes the costs of moving to Blockchain affordable, and thus removes budgetary barriers to entry.
• Access to Blockchain enabled applications and data are largely identity- and role-based. The use of public cloud has become the proving ground for identity- and access-based management approaches, such as those provided by Microsoft, Google and AWS. These services are already native on these cloud providers; you don’t have to integrate them yourself.
• The use of intensive transaction logging, with both distributed and I/O-intensive impacts, is perfect for cloud computing. Logging operations can be spun off on new machine instances and storage instances without impacting the core application. These are launched, used to support the Blockchain processes and then de-provisioned.

So, Now What?

Your interest in Blockchain really depends upon the vertical market you’re in. Operations that drive many financial transactions, trading something that costs money, will find huge promise in this technology.

However, even organizations that are not big money shops like banks, can find value in Blockchain. Consider the applications available to purchase and track materials and inventory, as well as applications for retail organizations that can sell merchandise via Blockchain. Healthcare payers and providers can find applications for Blockchain, to reduce the cost of dealing with large transactions, and for the secure storage and dissemination of patient data.

Moreover, IoT technology providers could find that, as with the Weather.com applications we mentioned above, they can use Blockchain as a way to push data from device sensors to the database. For instance, when tracking a tanker and all its systems across the ocean, in the event of an incident (e.g., a storm), you can understand what went right and wrong, with a clear understanding that neither the company nor the crew have the ability to change that data once it’s brought into the Blockchain network edge.

So, what do you do, specifically, to take advantage of Blockchain? There are a few steps we suggest:

1. Look at the core systems and systems requirements that may benefit from Blockchain within your organization or company. What are the core business benefits that you’re seeking? required ROI from the Blockchain? What would be the implementation of Blockchain?
2. Look at your current cloud strategy, and the best way to support any new Blockchain applications. This means, understand how existing cloud end-points map into (or don’t work with) a Blockchain implementation and/or applications. A Blockchain strategy may also affect the public clouds that you chose. Right now, each vendor is off in its own direction for supporting Blockchain.
3. Identify the tactical use cases for Blockchain. Understand the general requirements we covered in the first point. But also define the existing use cases and break them down into their sub-parts, so you understand how they must be built. You can work up from the use cases, to the applications and then to the technology solution that you’ll need to support Blockchain.

If you follow these steps, the path to Blockchain via the cloud should be a short one, and not at all complex. The complexity does come in when dealing with the maturity of a technology that has not yet established itself. Time will solve that problem, and the cloud should be able to do the rest.

David Linthicum

David is a SVP at Cloud Technology Partners and an internationally recognized cloud computing expert and thought leader. With more than 13 books on computing, 3,000 published articles, 500 conference presentations and numerous appearances on radio and TV programs, David has spent the last 30 years teaching businesses how to use resources more productively.

A brief history of cloud

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What is Career Evolve?

Career Evolve is your partner in online learning and career development. Search our catalog of 28,000+ courses from over 21,000 top colleges and universities. Our partners have helped over 2 million students and continue to enroll over 30,000 students each month. Career Evolve provides you with access to free and affordable online training. 

You can take courses in subjects varying from Philosophy to Computer Science or even Advanced Fiction Writing to Becoming a Physical Therapy Aide. Learn at your pace anytime and anywhere. 
Career Evolve also integrates with  to profile your achievements to potential employers. 

Whether you are searching for micro learning or courses from leading Universities Career Evolve is the answer for free and affordable continuous learning and working profressionals faced with shrinking training budgets. 

Invest in yourself with Career Evolve.

Procurement specialists must plan for Cloud Aware Procurements

If you are a procurement specialist and finding more and more requirements coming in that are related to cloud computing then you should take a pause and revist how you manage your procurements.

 

Typically this means that procurement needs to begin with a survey of the current organization to determine which potential cloud service providers already are providing services, map (together with IT and risk management) potential additional cloud service providers, and then begin to bring these into a structured real-time procurement framework.

 

Here are some typical différences between a non-cloud aware procurement and a cloud aware procurement that you can review.

 

 

 

Non-Cloud-Aware Procurement

 

Processes IT

•• Collect the requests.

•• Consolidate and filter requirements.

•• Write a budget (CAPEX and OPEX).

•• Pass requests to procurement.

Procurement

•• Write an RFI and RFP.

•• Select the supplier.

•• Develop contract based on standard framework.

•• Place order for system/services.

•• Pay for services according to milestones.

•• Pay for maintenance annually.

Supplier

•• Deliver services.

Cloud-Aware Procurement

Business

•• Find supplier from an Internet or other search.

•• Select and configure services, accept terms and conditions, and

order services.

•• Use the services.

Supplier

•• Instantiate services that business user configures.

•• Collect usage data and invoices business user accordingly.

5 Ways to Know You Have a Natural Strength

Wednesday, September 14, 2016 - by  Dan Schwartz             

Writing has always been easy for me. When it’s time to develop an article, book, or other form of written work, it always seems to come together seamlessly without a great deal of effort. Yet I haven’t been through formal training on how to write. I’ve only taken a handful of English classes in grade school, high school, and college, and I don’t have a master’s degree in English or journalism. Yet even with minimal credentials, I get called upon frequently to proofread other people’s writing and on many occasions, I have been asked to ghostwrite emails, marketing blurbs, and other small writing assignments. As I’ve advanced in my career, I’ve realized that writing is a natural strength of mine.
In searching for a great fit for your career, it is important to know what your natural strengths are. Your strengths will be the assets you can bring to an organization that will set you apart from others, create opportunities for promotion, and be your main selling points in interviews. Your strengths, however, are not the same as your skills, which you have acquired through formal training or other professional experiences. These are unique traits that you have always had.
What natural strengths do you possess?
As odd as it may seem, it can be challenging to recognize how you are truly gifted. You may have several great strengths, but because they come so easily to you, you might not even realize you possess them.
Here are five questions you can ask yourself to find out what you are truly gifted in:

1. Have you been successful at something with little or no training?

Do you have a similar story like mine where you seem to have a high level of success at something with little or no training? If so, you might want to consider the possibility that you possess a natural strength in that particular area. Whether it’s teaching, data analysis, sales, finance, or another discipline, think about those things that you never got trained to do, but do so well.

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2. What do you have a knack for?

I’ve always felt that I have a knack for teaching others. People tell me that I can break things down in a way that makes sense and allow them to understand it better. Has someone ever told you that you have a knack for something? Pay attention to those comments and take note of them when defining your strengths.

3. What are your strongest personality characteristics?

If someone were to ask you what others would say about you, what would you say? Are you patient, analytical, kind, or ambitious? These types of personality traits can say a lot about who you are and what types of jobs you might be very successful at with little or no training. Take some time and complete a personality test or ask some close friends to share with you what they think are your strongest personality traits. You might be surprised at what you find out!

4. What do you love to do?

Chances are that if you really love to do something, you do it often and are gifted in it. If you could do anything for a day, what would it be? Consider this when crafting your career path because, as Confucius once said, “Choose a job you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life.”

5. Are you a “go-to” person for something?

Are you called upon frequently to complete a certain task? Are people always impressed by your work in a certain area? Start to take mental notes of what you are often asked to do and you might uncover a natural strength.

Do you want to know more about how to uncover your strengths? I’ve written a chapter in Find Your Fit: A Guide to Landing a Job You’ll Love dedicated to understanding your skills and strengths and matching them to a career. Pre-order your copy today to receive it in October and launch your dream career!

3 tips to land your new job that you can start today

Today is Friday and the weekend is upon us.  Here at careerevolve.com we often get questions from people looking for career advice that does not take a long time, is affordable and that they can follow while they resume their already hectic schedule with either school,  family or their current employment.

Well here is your Friday rundown on tips that you can start today to get that career you desire.

1.  Do you like free training on your schedule?
Massive Online Open Courses or moocs for short are continuously being provided by top tier universities from around the world such as Yale, Stanford,  University of Toronto and countless others. Browse free online courses by subject and school here at careerevolve.com and you should find a subject in your field of interest to further your career.  New sessions and courses are added each month so be sure to check the course listings frequently.

2.  Learn from other people's problems.
If you are in IT then we highly recommend that you search through stackoverflow.com for questions and answers that other people have submitted to solve challenges in their projects.   You can turn stackoverflow into your personal knowledge centre.  Sometimes your actual answer will come from a submission that wasn't accepted as the final answer but it solves your specific problem.   This is a great way to learn and even anticipate problems that may occur making you look like a genius worthy of promoting.

3.  If it's a problem then there is likely someone selling a fix.
We know you're brilliant but a lot of the problems that we face today are already impacting others and someone had proposed a solution.  If you interested in a field such as a pre-sales consultant wanting to work remotely or even a motivational speaker wanting to gain clients then people are already doing this times a billion. You can find someone or a company that is already doing the role that you want and check if they offer an email series to try and get you to buy their products or a webinar explaining their goods.   Analyze their approach and make note of what is common amongst everyone you are reviewing and then consider making your own package to give your personal career effort a push forward.

It's Friday so get started today and see what you can change by next week.

Good luck and if you have any career questions or moocs that you would like to promote then contact us at careerevolve.com or on twitter at @careerevolved.

Have a great weekend!

5 Steps for Taking Your Career Up a Notch in 2017

Business people in all professions look to move beyond administration and completing tasks in their function to becoming a strategic contributor. Now you just need to figure out how to convince your leadership that you are the person for the job! Taking a road map from my 3rd book Taking Your SEAT at the Table, I’d like to share 5 steps for making that happen for your career!

1. Show that you are more than just your job description. Don’t wait for someone to change your job description. See what needs to be done and start doing it. You need to know what your manager’s goals are and what’s behind the strategic plan so you can figure out how you can contribute in a way that will get you noticed. Be that person to ask “why” all the time, and then determine how you can best contribute to your organization. If you know what needs to be done, but there are vital skills you’re lacking, consider joining peer-to-peer advisory groups (link to mastermind group page) or a nonprofit board (link to blog on joining a board) to learn things you don’t know—if you want to learn finance, become a treasurer.
2. Metrics that matter. Is the data you are collecting moving your organization forward? Or are you just tracking what you always tracked? My favorite example from human resources is tracking the number of days it takes to fill a position. Who cares?! What matters to management is the success of new hires – days until they are productive on the job – how long before they come up with their first innovation. That’s what moves business forward, not just filling a seat. Think about what your leaders care about – and what really makes a difference in your business. Then create metrics to ensure you are driving on the same road with leadership.
3. Inspire with emotion, seal the deal with logic. This is a quote from my #1 power partner – Deb Calvert of People First Productivity Solutions. Deb and I share the belief that you are responsible for building bridges in your organization. They aren’t going to come to you – you need to meet leaders in a place that is meaningful to them. Approach managers and leaders in areas other than your own, and if they don’t seem receptive invite them to lunch. Everyone loves to go out to lunch!  Find out what your leaders care about — it most likely won’t be the color of the ID badge lanyards — and align your communication message with their priorities.
4. Use vendors to get your job done. Outsourcing is a critical relationship to get day-to-day work off your desk. Many vendors have sophisticated technology and processes to accomplish things that take you hours. Be sure you are using your budget, and your vendors, wisely. Thinking about all your vendors you will likely find many agreements were created years ago. Revisit old agreements to see if they’re still relevant to what your organization needs today.  Determine what you need to get off your desk and be sure you have the right vendor to handle the task. Then hold them accountable to get their job done.
5. Ambition and drive are visible competencies. Show your leaders that you want additional responsibility and authority. Work smarter, not harder. Constantly evaluate what you do and how you do it. Are there some tasks you can automate or delegate? Then do it. Be a problem solver. If your plate is full, it’s OK to say no, but then find them someone who can. Add value by finding the resources you need to move forward.

Use these tips as your first roadmap to a career that will take you where you want to go. If you’d like to hear a webinar on the topics – completely free – click here!

Lori Kleiman is an HR expert and HR speaker who conducted over 30 seminars in 2016 to business people and HR professionals sharing best practices and new initiatives. If you’d like to have Lori keynote one of her HR presentations at your upcoming event, click here, or email Lori directly at lori@hrtopics.com!

Cloud Adoption Framework for Small Business - The Future of the IT Department free download

• The next diagram is an excerpt from the IBM white paper The Future of the IT Department, and it contains:

1. Dark gray cells represent functions no longer needed in the new model 
2. Light gray cells represent functions that have reduced scope 
3. Cells highlighted by a red outline represent components whose importance grows following the adoption of public cloud-delivered services

The paper is based on the premise that outside cloud providers will supply all IT services, and that assumption determines the makeup of the IT organization’s roles and responsibilities.

Download the IBM report at:
http://www-935.ibm.com/services/be/en/attachments/pdf/Cloud_-_The_Future_of_the_IT_Department.pdf

Learn more with the Cloud Adoption Framework for Small Business on Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01LI78TCY.

Bridging the cloud skills gap

 

Written byMaxwell Cooter

Cloud wranglers and devops specialists are still a rare species, despite demand

When Gartner asked IT professionals how prepared their organisations were for transforming themselves into digital businesses, there was widespread agreement that there was some way to go.
According to the Gartner survey, 59% of IT professionals thought their organisations were not prepared for the necessary changes to bring about a digital business approach.
One of the pressing problems faced by many companies was the shortage of technical skills, which Gartner's report set this issue out clearly.
"Emerging technologies in fields such as cloud computing, mobility, and data and analytics, in addition to security and risk management, are permeating nearly every aspect of the IT landscape," wrote analyst John Hagerty in the Gartner report.
In particular, the CIOs and IT managers say that cloud skills are the most necessary to bring about this transformation - 22% say it's the technology that will have the biggest impact on their career.
Demand for these type of skills shows no sign of receding either. According to survey of the British jobs marker carried out by Rackspace, there's still great demand for specialist skills. Vacancies for Amazon Web Service jobs have increased by 53% in the last year, a rise mirrored by demand for Azure and devops, which rose by 75% and 53% respectively.
But those are nothing compared some skillsets: there was a 341% increase in Docker vacancies, a clear sign how businesses are becoming more interested in container technology.
Is it only these skills or are there others? And what can be done to improve the situation?
Richard Sykes, chairman of the Cloud Industry Forum, agrees that devops is the area where opportunities are increasing. "We're seeing interest that's very much in the devops area. The emphasis has been very much on producing software that the clients want."

According to Nigel Redwood, CEO of services company Nasstar, attitudes to work are almost as important as technical skills. "You can teach skills," he says. "What you can't teach is work ethic, common sense and customer service ahead of the skills. Sure, if you have a project where you need a particular skill, then you need to recruit for that, but I find logic and a good work ethic are more important."
While there are still certain skills in demand, the different nature of cloud does mean a change of emphasis, so there's more of a demand for people and negotiating skills. Part of the appeal of cloud is moving away from the idea that IT staff within an enterprise run everything, keeping the lights on - when someone does that, different attitudes are required.
Perhaps what is most interesting about the demands for cloud skills is that it's vendor-dependent. The Rackspace survey found there's a growing demand for expertise in Amazon cloud, but that highlights that cloud providers have their own proprietary technologies to support. Redwood says that as far as Nasstar is concerned, Microsoft Azure skills are very much in demand - a reflection of the way that Microsoft-dominated companies are sticking to the vendor for their cloud needs.
Against this background, OpenStack is very much the dog that didn't bark in the night. The technology didn't figure in the Rackspace survey - deeply ironic in itself when you consider that Rackspace was one of the originators of OpenStack - but neither Sykes nor Redwood saw it as a major demand. There have certainly been concerns that there's a shortage of skilled OpenStack people out there, though, which is why the OpenStack Foundation announced a certification process last year.
One of the factors that might affect the talent pool is the arrival in the next few months of the likes of Amazon, Microsoft and Salesforce as they open datacentres in the UK. This may well have an effect on available staff.
And this will have a knock-on effect in the general market, as Sykes explains: "There needs to be a more general understanding of the cloud market." He says that this is something we will see from other cloud providers and from larger enterprises too. As the market changes and more businesses turn to cloud, people who know the market inside out will be in greater demand. "A larger company buying a lot of stuff will want to bring in someone who has worked [with] Amazon so [they] can procure from the basis of understanding how the system works," he adds.
In the long run, however, the future is rosy. It may be true that there's a shortage of skilled people at the moment, but there seems to be a common endeavour to improve matters, whether that be providers like Amazon or Microsoft running their training courses, companies like Nasstar sending personnel to be trained, or organisations like the Cloud Industry Forum offers a new set of courses for individual members.
The talent pool is also increasing: there were complaints about 10 or 15 years ago that university computer science courses were a bit behind the times: that's no longer the case. "The quality we get from universities is very good these days," says Redwood. "But even the best still need further training. We have to offer a clear career path."
And, ultimately, questions about particular skills are going to be answered by companies having that commitment to training. At the moment, devops skills are at a premium but a concerted industry effort should restore the situation to some sort of equilibrium.
As John Hagerty says in the Gartner report: "Acquiring cloud skills quickly is essential for IT professionals to be able to reimagine and remake their firm's IT infrastructure to better enable digital business strategies." In the long term, the cloud industry and, indeed, the business world itself relies on this drive to better education. Happily, most companies seem to recognise this but there's certainly no reason to slow down - cloud is not going away any time soon.

10 Tips for a DevOps Career

by
Valerie Silverthorne

Site Editor/Writer

Published: 31 Aug 2016

DevOps jobs -- and salaries -- are hot right now. Expert coach and recruiter Jill Jubinski offers her best advice for networking yourself into a new career in DevOps.

If you want to build a DevOps career, Jill Jubinski, technical community evangelist at IBM's Blue Box, can tell you just what you need to do, whether you're an employee or an employer.

  As the keynote speaker at DevOpsDays in Boston, Jubinski explained to the packed crowd that the goal of a DevOps career was to be "as happy as a pig in sh*t." And she offered equally straightforward advice on how to get there.

 

Her timing is good. Just released data from a Foote Partners survey of 2,895 employers shows demand for DevOps skills is high -- and paychecks are even higher. Over the past 12 months DevOps salaries have jumped 12.6%. As of the second quarter of 2016, DevOps career engineers were earning an average of $102,672 while Lead DevOps engineers made an average of $133,474.
So, if you want to work your way into a DevOps career, here's Jubinski's best advice:

Google yourself: "As a candidate these days you are not a single note, you are an entity," Jubinski said. And it starts with your "online brand," which is what a prospective employer can see about you online. Her top tip -- Google yourself to see what an employer is seeing. "Remember, nothing dies online."

Network: Whether it's contribution to GitHub or attending conferences, it's important to get out there and communicate with others while working on your DevOps career, Jubinski said. "The more people you interact with, the more people will have things to say about you."
It's OK to skip LinkedIn: Jubinski said there's a "stigma" attached to LinkedIn in technology fields, so if it's not comfortable for you, direct your social media efforts elsewhere.
Create a well-rounded story: "You want to be searchable," Jubinski said. "Put yourself out there, whether it's blogging or tweeting or whatever."
Be nice: It's a small world and people talk, so make sure your actions will reflect kindly on you.
Don't burn bridges: It's hard, but try not to.
Be yourself: "Being cookie cutter is super old school," Jubinski said. "If a company doesn't accept you for who you are you don't want them."
Take pride: It's OK to mention a new skills or an accepted presentation at a conference. It falls under the category of "knowledge sharing" and not bragging.
Remake that resume: Don't overthink this, but avoid resume boredom. Jubinski puts three links right at the top of her resume so it's easy to quickly get a sense of who she is. And she ends her resume with a short paragraph written in her tone.
Reach out: Don't just sit and wait for a recruiter to find you. It is OK to reach out.
Jubinski also has advice for employers:
Make the work interesting: The more interesting the challenge, the happier the employee.
It's not just the pay check: "Just because you can't pay what Google pays doesn't mean you can't get top talent," Jubinski said.
Encourage communities: Internal and external communities facilitate learning and growth and keep employees engaged. Her suggestion -- give an employee time at work to prepare a conference presentation, or contribute financially. "If you have a core group of people you've bonded with at work, that's going to impact the likelihood of staying at your company."

Cloud planning using TOGAF and enterprise architecture

An excerpt from Cloud Adoption Framework for Small Business

Learn more about the Cloud Adoption Framework for Small Business and pre-order a copy of the ebook today.  support@careerevolve.com

Is Cloud Computing right for my Business?

A free excerpt from the Cloud Adoption Framework for Small Business.

Is Cloud Computing right for my Business?

One of the fundamental questions that your business will have to assess is whether or not cloud computing is suitable for your business. Here are some guiding concepts that you can apply to the business to determine the level of suitability.
When Cloud Computing may be a Fit
-When the processes, applications, and data are largely independent.
-When the points of integration are well defined.
-When a lower level of security will work just fine.
-When the core internal enterprise architecture is healthy.
-When the Web is the desired platform.
-When cost is an issue.
-When the applications are new.

When Cloud Computing may not be a Fit 
-When the processes, applications, and data are largely coupled.
-When the points of integration are not well defined.
-When a high level of security is required.
-When the core internal enterprise architecture needs work.
-When the application requires a native interface.
-When cost is an issue.
-When the application is legacy.

What are the main roles associated to cloud?

Cloud Services Consumer: person or organization that uses services from a Cloud Services Provider.
Cloud Services Provider: person, organization or entity responsible for making a service available to service consumers.
Cloud Carrier: the intermediary that provides connectivity and transport of cloud services between the provider and consumer.
Cloud Broker: An entity that manages the use, performance and delivery of cloud services, and negotiates relationships between provider and consumer.
Cloud Auditor: a party that can conduct independent assessment of cloud services, information systems operations, performance and security of the cloud implementations.

Cloud Adoption Framework for Small Business

Email support@careerevolve.com to order your copy today.

World Religions Through Their Scriptures

The study of religion is a rich and fascinating dimension of human experience that includes, but goes well beyond, an exploration of beliefs and ritual practices. Through the lens of scriptures, this Religion XSeries will explore how religions are internally diverse, and how they evolve and change as living traditions that impact, and are impacted, by the cultural, historical, and political contexts of adherents. We will explore issues of interpretation through themes such as gender and sexuality, the arts, violence and peace, science, and power and authority. In addition to learning with and from world-renowned scholars, learners will have the opportunity to interact with peers from around the world representing diverse backgrounds, affiliations, and perspectives.

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• How to understand religion in general, and scriptures in particular, with an emphasis on social and historical context.
• How “scripture” is defined within each tradition and how those understandings have evolved through time and in differing social and historical locations.
• The diverse ways that “scriptures” are interpreted within each tradition and how the authority to interpret is determined and negotiated.
• Diverse manifestations of scripture that include but are not restricted to texts.  

https://www.edx.org/xseries/world-religions-through-scriptures