Which Skills Should Your Team Have for a Successful Cloud Migration?

Migrating a company’s digital assets to the Cloud can be one of the most exciting, rewarding and headache-inducing projects for a business. If done correctly, the benefits and opportunities are significant, but if executed badly, fixing the mistakes can be more costly than the entire project.

The three most common concerns shared by businesses when it comes to Cloud adoption are:

• Shortage of specialist skills
• Security concerns
• Cost management

75% of respondents marked ‘inadequacy of resources and expertise’ as a key Cloud migration challenge in a report by Flexera. Introducing personnel with the right skills for successful Cloud adoption is the best way to ensure a smooth, secure and scalable transition to the Cloud.

What skills are required for a successful Cloud migration?

To execute a seamless transition to the Cloud, these are the top skills your business needs:

• Cloud infrastructure knowledge
• Cloud security knowledge
• Experience in Cloud networking
• Data engineering skills
• DevOps expertise
• Linux expertise
• Project management
• Agile capability

Technical Skills

Cloud infrastructure

Arguably the most important skill for successful Cloud migration is sound expertise in Cloud infrastructure, which involves the setup of key Cloud components such as networks, security, hardware, storage and virtualisation software. Cloud infrastructure skills are essential for companies looking to configure and deploy a robust networking solution that aligns with their business objectives.

Cloud security

The adoption of Cloud computing by several big banks has signalled a noticeable shift in technologies associated with the Cloud being a viable innovation for the future. However, despite this increased confidence, security and data protection remains a significant consideration.

Cloud security is critical, especially when dealing with sensitive customer data, so leveraging Cloud security professionals’ expertise with experience dealing with Amazon Web Services (AWS) – the largest public Cloud computing platform in the world and Microsoft Cloud Security is essential.

Hiring a Cloud security consultant to work alongside your Data Protection Officer at the beginning of your Cloud migration journey will ensure you have a clear roadmap of the steps you need to take to secure your Cloud environment and mitigate any potential security risks.

Data engineering

Data engineering is a critical skill for managing vast amounts of data stored in the Cloud. A data engineer with SQL and NoSQL skills who has experience with big data will enable your organisation to reap better insights. With proper data management and analysis at your disposal, your business can begin to use data more strategically to facilitate growth and inform important business decisions.

Cloud networking

Cloud networking involves a complex web of Cloud services, all interacting with one another. Each Cloud service can have slightly different network requirements, depending on functionality and security considerations. As a result, Access Control – determining which systems should be allowed to talk to one another and which service should sit separately on completely different networks, is essential.

Cloud network management has been increasingly important in recent years due to the rise in remote working and adoption of Cloud collaboration tools, a trend that looks set to continue.

Devops

DevOps involves integrating your Development and Operations teams for environment configuration and code deployment, as well as managing your software deployment from development into production. Ensuring you have the right DevOps expertise onboard will empower your business to continuously optimise the ways your organisation manages applications deployed in a Cloud environment.

Linux

Linux has been a popular operating system for hosting application servers for many decades and is prized for its stability and low ownership cost. Linux enables Cloud engineers to build, power and maintain Cloud applications with ease.

Cloud Engineers with Linux skills are becoming increasingly sought-after as the Cloud makes the deployment of applications on this operating system easier than ever before. According to RedHat’s research, 54% of all applications running in public Cloud infrastructure are running on Linux virtual machines.

Find out more about FDM’s Technical Services for businesses.

Business Skills

Project management

Migrating to the Cloud is an extremely complex project with many moving parts, so having an experienced Project Manager to guide it can be the difference between success and failure. Excellent time, people and budget management is key to ensuring the project is executed on time and on budget.

A dedicated project manager will be responsible for building out comprehensive project plans, assigning tasks to relevant team members, ensuring the team keeps to the deadlines set and providing regular updates to senior stakeholders. This will help mitigate common Cloud computing challenges and ensure all internal and external teams are working in sync.

Agile

Agile is a prevalent and efficient project management framework that involves breaking large projects into shorter stages or ‘sprints’, resulting in continuous interaction and greater collaboration between teams.

Enlisting a project manager having experience with agile processes can help to speed up the delivery of your project, ensure better prioritisation of tasks and empower your team members to deliver the project on time and to the highest possible standard.

Learn more about FDM’s Business Services.

How can you hire for these skills and find the talent you need?

At FDM, we partner with our clients to fill speciality skills gaps and provide a pipeline of business-ready and diverse tech talent. We provide our FDM Consultants with expert training in Cloud-specific skills across a range of different technologies and professional skills coaching. Our consultants can fit seamlessly into your internal teams and provide the skills you need to meet your business objectives.

With so many different technologies interacting with each other, unique situations arise for a business developing its digital and virtual presence. That is why FDM also offers tailored services to meet our clients’ needs if they have specific requirements.

Why partner with FDM?

• FDM offers organisations a pipeline of trained talent well versed in Cloud computing skills.
• FDM has a naturally diverse tech consultant pool, enabling companies to boost their tech skills and diversity profiles simultaneously.
• FDM offers consultants ongoing support and training even while working on-site with clients to update their knowledge and skills and prepare them for unique challenges.

“Building the next generation of Cloud IT specialists from a variety of diverse backgrounds is absolutely essential for enabling businesses to thrive, especially during these uncertain times.”
Andy Brown, Chief Commercial Officer.

Learn more about how FDM can help you build your talent pipeline to support a successful Cloud adoption project here.