Future of IT jobs as we shift into the "cloud"

Cyberscum

inscom.brigade wrote: »

I was at a GOV cloud camp recently; nobody there is jumpingin the deep end. Seems the only real interestis the possibility to conserve energy. No sensitive information will ever go to a public cloud.

Not true anymore. I have been part of major discussions and implementations of classified into private clouds. As we speak there are more and more gov agencies moving into the cloud env.

tkerber

UnixGuy wrote: »

I'm very pessimistic about the cloud. I think it will have a negative impact on us IT professionals. It's easier now to outsource the infrastructure to a cloud service provider:
e.g.:
Brennan IT Opens Global Services Centre in Navi Mumbai -- MUMBAI, October 17, 2014 /PR Newswire India/ --

I know you can always work for Cloud providers, but there are always cheaper remote options and you need less IT professionals than before (cutting costs, easier to manage virtual servers, SDNs,..etc)

I'm trying to change my career path from traditional sys admin to something else..probably security or presales....I don't think it's a smart move for me to remain in a traditional technical role in the next 5-10 yrs.

I would agree with you--when I first started in IT my ultimate goal was Systems Administrator. Not anymore, now I would say the safest bet is an ISP, MSP, Cloud Provider, or some sort of specialized tech company. The last internal position I had was grossly overstaffed with Systems Administrators due to the automation of a lot of the older processes and systems. Most of them were on reddit or waiting around for tickets. Now obviously this is only one company but I still think the classic Systems Administrator or 'IT guy' is an endangered species.. Plus working for tech companies is great in my opinion.

I'm also not as much doom and gloom. I mean it's hard to know what the future brings but people have been claiming all sorts of technologies killing IT jobs for such a long time. Yet here we are in 2014 with still lots of Help Desk, Desktop Support, Systems Administrators, etc.. Cloud mania continues.

bridgestone

I agree that it is going to change things radically. The cloud will dominate.

Small businesses will use saas solutions like Office 365.

Larger businesses will use the cloud.

With no need to maintain your own servers, that means fewer sysadmin jobs, in my view,

TomkoTech

There will not be fewer system admin roles. Someone has to maintain the "cloud" servers. The cloud does not run itself. Yes the individual businesses won't need the system admins or help desk personnel. However the company providing those servers and and services will.

pinkydapimp

TomkoTech wrote: »

There will not be fewer system admin roles. Someone has to maintain the "cloud" servers. The cloud does not run itself. Yes the individual businesses won't need the system admins or help desk personnel. However the company providing those servers and and services will.

But the company hosting infrastructure for 200 companies isnt going to hire 200 sysadmins. More and more you can do more with less. And that means getting to a point where they might need only 1 true sysadmin with others doing maintenance depending on setups and high availability or how dependent they are on vendors and such.

TomkoTech

By your logic as MSPs and outsourcing as a whole became prevalent their should have been fewer jobs, and yet here we are in year 30 of continuous job growth. Larger companies are going to virtualize and use cloud options internally. Smaller companies who didn't have a need for a systems admin are going to starting using cloud service providers which in turn will have CSPs looking to hire more system admins. As the costs to host these services decreases more companies that couldn't afford it before will start using them.

You have to consider how many business out there still don't have proper IT systems in place due to cost constraints. As these services continue to get cheaper more and more are going to jump on the bandwagon. Currently you can have an enterprise level infrastructure for minimal cost. You just need someone to find these businesses and show them the cost is no longer prohibitive and how investing in IT with increase production and net growth.

The job growth according to the BLS through 2022 for computer support is 17% (higher than average), systems analysts is 25% (higher than average), and network/sys admins is 12% (about average).

It doesn't take a crystal ball to know that Security is probably the safest bet for long term growth. However building your resume through systems administration and transitioning to security is at least imo always be the best route.

pinkydapimp

TomkoTech wrote: »

By your logic as MSPs and outsourcing as a whole became prevalent their should have been fewer jobs, and yet here we are in year 30 of continuous job growth. Larger companies are going to virtualize and use cloud options internally. Smaller companies who didn't have a need for a systems admin are going to starting using cloud service providers which in turn will have CSPs looking to hire more system admins. As the costs to host these services decreases more companies that couldn't afford it before will start using them.

You have to consider how many business out there still don't have proper IT systems in place due to cost constraints. As these services continue to get cheaper more and more are going to jump on the bandwagon. Currently you can have an enterprise level infrastructure for minimal cost. You just need someone to find these businesses and show them the cost is no longer prohibitive and how investing in IT with increase production and net growth.

The job growth according to the BLS through 2022 for computer support is 17% (higher than average), systems analysts is 25% (higher than average), and network/sys admins is 12% (about average).

It doesn't take a crystal ball to know that Security is probably the safest bet for long term growth. However building your resume through systems administration and transitioning to security is at least imo always be the best route.

i think we agree in a way. i dont think the jobs go away. i do think that the roles "as we know them today" will transition into other types of roles or sysadmin roles might be lower paying or require less experience. Which isnt a bad thing as i do agree its still good way to build a career. Just not an endpoint as many people treat it.

bridgestone

TomkoTech wrote: »

There will not be fewer system admin roles. Someone has to maintain the "cloud" servers. The cloud does not run itself. Yes the individual businesses won't need the system admins or help desk personnel. However the company providing those servers and and services will.

Admin is different from maintenance.

Admin will continue, of course. Patch management, no more underlying hardware etc. All those nitty gritty tasks that didn't really add any value but just "had to be done" can now all be done or eliminated by the cloud provider.

Companies that had 10 sysadmins before going to the cloud will only need maybe 4 after.