Learn how to Upskill and Reskill for optimal use of the Cloud

Business leaders and analysts alike all agree that change is the new normal. It's because of this that more technology leaders realize change management and agility to be critical parts of their strategy.

Many industries remain in uncertain territory as the world continues grappling with external forces that challenge the norm and force change among us all. Leaders at Accenture liken it to rebuilding the engine while trying to weather a storm.

Despite the headwinds, more are facing the storm head-on. McKinsey reports more organizations have accelerated their migration to the cloud, with the momentum to build into the future. This is an important first step to remaining competitive in a world that demands relentless innovation.

While the journey can be tumultuous, the results pay off in the end. By building new competencies, organizations across industries realize the benefits that come with the cloud: scale, cost-saving, and efficiency.

Companies rely on cloud computing to accelerate digital transformation and much more:

• Deliver new products and services by successfully migrating infrastructure and apps from on-prem to the cloud.
• Realize new operating models by architecting their cloud environment so it scales with business demands and operates with minimal downtime and security issues.
• Reimagine user experiences by driving business innovation across product, marketing, sales, service, and operations, that take advantage of ongoing advances in cloud computing.
• Transform their sales and service by aligning cloud computing initiatives with their company's mission-critical priorities.

What often stands in the way of realizing these benefits are afflictions many in IT face: talent shortages, high turnover rates, and skills gaps.

According to Skillsoft's IT Skills and Salary survey, 68% of IT decision-makers — those who manage teams and budgets at work — in cloud roles report skills gaps on their teams. And yet, this isn't the greatest challenge. Retention tops their list of issues, with recruitment close behind and developing stronger teams following.

For this group of leaders, they often can't find people with the skills they need or they struggle to retain their talent. When organizations lose skilled workers, the impact is felt on the team and the bottom line. Of these decision-makers, 35% say certified staff add $30,000 or more in value to their organizations over non-certified staff.

It's for these reasons, most (61%) plan to train their existing teams as many realize they can't hire their way out of skills gaps. Only 18% say they plan to hire outside staff to overcome skills gaps and even fewer (13%) plan to enlist third parties for help.

Leaders see the power of reskilling and upskilling their staff to improve retention, grow their teams and develop skills. By doing so, they can set to motion plans to run their entire organization from the cloud. But first, they must chart their course.

Read Next: The 15 Highest-Paying Cloud Computing Certifications 

Cloud executives and professionals understand the importance of embracing cloud computing but often face several key challenges that prevent them from reaping the benefits:

• Bringing change to a complex environment
• Upholding security and compliance,
• Misalignment (and more, according to Accenture)

IT leaders are looking for experiences to embrace the cloud and adapt to fast-evolving technology needs.

To arrive at meaningful opportunities, IT leaders must take a series of steps to migrate to the cloud and allocate resources to support these efforts:

1. Migrate infrastructure and apps from to the cloud. This will make scaling the organization less complicated over time, including during acquisitions, new technological investments, or adding staff.
   
   
2. Architect their cloud environment in a way that can scale with business demands and operate with minimal downtime and security issues. Many organizations rely on multiple cloud providers today, often with a blend of private and public, hybrid solutions. A sustainable architect becomes even more important for long-term scale and efficacy.
   
   
3. Remain adaptable and responses to cloud advances. This will help the organization and its employees become more agile and able to take on change or mitigate emerging threats.
   
   
4. Align cloud computing initiatives with company's priorities. In many ways, a leading reason to leverage cloud computing is to improve efficiency. That could be in the form of productivity, cost-savings, availability and elasticity. It’s important that whatever your organization’s goals are that the cloud supports them.

Skillsoft’s cloud training solutions focus on developing teams to successfully manage cloud migrations, operations, innovation and organizational alignments.

With Skillsoft, you can close skills gaps across your organization in a coordinated and disciplined manner.

Role and skill-based journeys make it easy to develop new competencies faster by combining learning science with expert-led, authorized training. Through Skillsoft's Cloud Career Journey, architects, engineers, developers and managers can increase information retention and apply their skills on the job more confidently.

• Instructional Variety — An integrated mix of on-demand and live, instructor-led technical training helps meet the needs of different learners who manage cloud migrations, develop applications, and more. Curated, role and skill-based learning paths make it easy for learners to advance their skills in critical areas to support organizational goals.
  
  
• Comprehensive Skills Development — A deep and broad library of technical content paired with market-leading leadership training improve collaboration and effectiveness across teams to manage operations.
  
  
• High Success Rates — More than 90% of learners pass their certification exams on the first attempt (99% on the second) due to Skillsoft's up-to-date, authorized training curricula for leading technology providers, like AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft and many others.
  
  
• Measuring Skill Made Easy — Skills Benchmark Assessments help managers and team members understand their skills gaps, identify the best training to strengthen areas with the most need, and track progress along the way.

See why IDC ranks Skillsoft among the leader IT training companies in the U.S.

Skillsoft's Cloud Career Journey is a prescriptive path to certification, with an outcome-oriented collection of learning paths providing comprehensive skill development, built on a foundation you can trust.

Learn more about Skillsoft’s transformative Career Journey to help learners pursue cloud-focused roles, build their skills, and earn certifications: