Work in IT. Winners and losers in the cloud era
One of the reasons why, as they say, clouds will completely change the IT Universe - they make high technologies available even more than the first personal computers, which for the first time made it possible for non-techies to create unbearable tables in Excel and mess around with them to work.
“And although cloud technologies are not as revolutionary as the Internet, which allowed ordinary people to use Google instead of memory, education and knowledge, their meaning is only slightly smaller, ” says Dan Olds, founder of the consulting firm Gabriel Consulting Group, “ cloud computing gives people fast and inexpensive access to the most complex software, reliable storage and data - all that is needed for their work, and sometimes without the mediation of IT-specialists . "
What does this mean for IT people? Here are some statistics from IDC:
● By 2014 , one third of all IT companies will provide their partners with cloud services, instead of creating an IT infrastructure at the enterprise itself.
● By 2015, cloud services will account for 46% of all new computer costs. Three quarters of them will be SaaS costs.
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“Of course, we are not talking about having to completely dismantle IT departments, ” said Sean Hackett, an analyst at research company 451 Group, “there will be a lot in common, but much will change too. The design work will come to the forefront, and the implementation of the project, what was previously done by the company itself, will be provided by the clouds . ”
The main winners are corporate application architects.
The profession, which was often considered too abstract and far from practice, has a great future. A talented application architect often turns out to be an unsociable introvert who prefers to design systems on paper and doesn’t care much about who will implement it. Therefore, in conditions of universal virtualization, it will undoubtedly feel like a fish in water.
The work of database architects, networks and any other systems combines a very high level of abstraction on the one hand, and knowledge of the nuances of real servers on the other. The architect does not simply work with variable or data structures, he is also obliged to plan the allocation of processor resources, memory, disks, communication channels.
Cloud systems can contain a much larger number of elements and connections between them at the same price as the traditional infrastructure, and changes in it can occur much more often and faster. In such circumstances, the role of system architects is difficult to overestimate.
Winners - system administrators
After the architect has designed the system, it is administrators who will have to raise virtual servers, monitor resource allocation, and deal with emergency situations.
The weakening of communication between the administrator and the iron can lead to the fact that administrators will no longer be a separate caste and will be more employees of business units than the IT department.
System administrators in the data center will work with greater performance. Uniform infrastructure will save you from many hours of fussing with different servers - simply remove the failed server from the rack and replace it with a new one, or simply restart the virtual machine.
Winners - linear IT-managers
Just like the administrator, the manager will benefit from the fact that the infrastructure will become more flexible. Now the IT manager will be more connected with the tasks of the business and specific subject areas, rather than servers and devices. When switching to a cloud infrastructure, it will not be tied to its individual parts, but will operate across the enterprise.
CIO and top IT management will change
As with lower level managers, due to the flexibility of cloud systems, there will be fewer barriers between areas of responsibility. In addition, outsourcing and interaction with external service providers will account for a very large proportion of their work.
Contract and supply managers change
Instead of choosing suppliers of equipment or software, they will have to choose suppliers of cloud services. Contracts and terms for providing cloud services is a big and complex topic. Experience shows that even large providers such as Amazon may have problems, and managers should be well-versed in all the technical details so that these problems bring as little loss as possible.
Business application developers will change
Large companies will not use software less in their work, but they will definitely become less involved in modifying and refining. They can get most of the necessary software from Salesforce.com and other SaaS-providers, which means they do not need to implement this functionality on their own.
Although they will have to adapt typical SaaS applications to their own needs, but to a much lesser extent than traditional software. Cloud providers offer only a limited set of options and tools. Often it can be a question of converting business processes in a company to proven standard models embedded in cloud applications.
In addition, reducing the needs of enterprises for developers will occur against the background of growing needs of cloud providers themselves. Instead of specific systems for specific customers, more generic generic solutions will be written.
Losers - heads of IT-divisions
The height of the management hierarchy will decrease due to cloud technologies. Line managers and system administrators will be more tied to their business units than to the IT department. The overall volume of information infrastructure within the enterprise will decrease, the degree of automation will significantly increase.
Losers - narrow specialists
Previously, a deep IT specialist in any one area could confidently count on career growth. But not now. When working with cloud applications you need to understand a bit of everything. Companies will increasingly have to maintain their own data center and the entire infrastructure. The need for generalists will be greater than for those who can do one thing very well.
Unclear consequences - support and help desk
It would be premature to talk about reducing the role of technical support services. The needs of users for help always exceed the capabilities of IT departments.
However, more and more corporate applications are acquiring a simple and familiar web interface. In addition, virtualization can significantly simplify and automate the work of a support specialist. If you previously had to hang on the phone, trying to figure out all the details and explain to the user what to do, you can now deal with the problem directly using remote desktop systems. Or just restart the virtual machine.
Cloud infrastructure allows you to automate many tasks related to solving typical problems or a massive change of configuration and updating applications. But companies often do not rush to get rid of technical support staff, because thanks to automation, they free up time to do their job better.
Translation: Luxoft Personnel recruitment agency
“And although cloud technologies are not as revolutionary as the Internet, which allowed ordinary people to use Google instead of memory, education and knowledge, their meaning is only slightly smaller, ” says Dan Olds, founder of the consulting firm Gabriel Consulting Group, “ cloud computing gives people fast and inexpensive access to the most complex software, reliable storage and data - all that is needed for their work, and sometimes without the mediation of IT-specialists . "What does this mean for IT people? Here are some statistics from IDC:
● By 2014 , one third of all IT companies will provide their partners with cloud services, instead of creating an IT infrastructure at the enterprise itself.
● By 2015, cloud services will account for 46% of all new computer costs. Three quarters of them will be SaaS costs.
')
“Of course, we are not talking about having to completely dismantle IT departments, ” said Sean Hackett, an analyst at research company 451 Group, “there will be a lot in common, but much will change too. The design work will come to the forefront, and the implementation of the project, what was previously done by the company itself, will be provided by the clouds . ”
Who is most affected by these changes? Someone will win, someone will lose, someone will have to change.
The main winners are corporate application architects.The profession, which was often considered too abstract and far from practice, has a great future. A talented application architect often turns out to be an unsociable introvert who prefers to design systems on paper and doesn’t care much about who will implement it. Therefore, in conditions of universal virtualization, it will undoubtedly feel like a fish in water.
The work of database architects, networks and any other systems combines a very high level of abstraction on the one hand, and knowledge of the nuances of real servers on the other. The architect does not simply work with variable or data structures, he is also obliged to plan the allocation of processor resources, memory, disks, communication channels.
Cloud systems can contain a much larger number of elements and connections between them at the same price as the traditional infrastructure, and changes in it can occur much more often and faster. In such circumstances, the role of system architects is difficult to overestimate.
Winners - system administrators
After the architect has designed the system, it is administrators who will have to raise virtual servers, monitor resource allocation, and deal with emergency situations.
The weakening of communication between the administrator and the iron can lead to the fact that administrators will no longer be a separate caste and will be more employees of business units than the IT department.
System administrators in the data center will work with greater performance. Uniform infrastructure will save you from many hours of fussing with different servers - simply remove the failed server from the rack and replace it with a new one, or simply restart the virtual machine.
Winners - linear IT-managers
Just like the administrator, the manager will benefit from the fact that the infrastructure will become more flexible. Now the IT manager will be more connected with the tasks of the business and specific subject areas, rather than servers and devices. When switching to a cloud infrastructure, it will not be tied to its individual parts, but will operate across the enterprise.
CIO and top IT management will changeAs with lower level managers, due to the flexibility of cloud systems, there will be fewer barriers between areas of responsibility. In addition, outsourcing and interaction with external service providers will account for a very large proportion of their work.
Contract and supply managers change
Instead of choosing suppliers of equipment or software, they will have to choose suppliers of cloud services. Contracts and terms for providing cloud services is a big and complex topic. Experience shows that even large providers such as Amazon may have problems, and managers should be well-versed in all the technical details so that these problems bring as little loss as possible.
Business application developers will change
Large companies will not use software less in their work, but they will definitely become less involved in modifying and refining. They can get most of the necessary software from Salesforce.com and other SaaS-providers, which means they do not need to implement this functionality on their own.
Although they will have to adapt typical SaaS applications to their own needs, but to a much lesser extent than traditional software. Cloud providers offer only a limited set of options and tools. Often it can be a question of converting business processes in a company to proven standard models embedded in cloud applications.
In addition, reducing the needs of enterprises for developers will occur against the background of growing needs of cloud providers themselves. Instead of specific systems for specific customers, more generic generic solutions will be written.
Losers - heads of IT-divisions
The height of the management hierarchy will decrease due to cloud technologies. Line managers and system administrators will be more tied to their business units than to the IT department. The overall volume of information infrastructure within the enterprise will decrease, the degree of automation will significantly increase.
Losers - narrow specialists
Previously, a deep IT specialist in any one area could confidently count on career growth. But not now. When working with cloud applications you need to understand a bit of everything. Companies will increasingly have to maintain their own data center and the entire infrastructure. The need for generalists will be greater than for those who can do one thing very well.
Unclear consequences - support and help desk
It would be premature to talk about reducing the role of technical support services. The needs of users for help always exceed the capabilities of IT departments.
However, more and more corporate applications are acquiring a simple and familiar web interface. In addition, virtualization can significantly simplify and automate the work of a support specialist. If you previously had to hang on the phone, trying to figure out all the details and explain to the user what to do, you can now deal with the problem directly using remote desktop systems. Or just restart the virtual machine.
Cloud infrastructure allows you to automate many tasks related to solving typical problems or a massive change of configuration and updating applications. But companies often do not rush to get rid of technical support staff, because thanks to automation, they free up time to do their job better.
Translation: Luxoft Personnel recruitment agency
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/126900/
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