Cloud IT Training is Protection for Your IT Career

TechRepublic recently published an article that documents a growing fear among many IT pros that cloud adoption is putting their jobs at risk. The statistics from the article are compelling. 28% fear that cloud adoption is putting their career at risk. For some it's the lack of tools to manage cloud services, for others, it's the lack of knowledge to how to migrate workloads, or lead a cloud deployment that drives these fears. Most important of all, the fears are real. 40% of respondents note that their data center footprint shrink as cloud services take over of on-premises infrastructure. But there is hope. Cloud is bringing its own challenges, and those challenges provide career opportunities for IT pros willing to acquire the skills to meet those challenges. In this article, look at the challenges, and how cloud IT training is projection for your IT career.

In one of our recent articles, we made the case that the shift to the cloud can make or break your IT career. The TechRepublic article is further proof of this. Times are changing, and that makes for some uncertainty, but, with cloud IT training, you can take control of your own destiny. While any cloud IT training or certification will help you earn more, there are two different types of training, and it's important to know how each type benefits your career:

• Vendor supplied training offered by Amazon on AWS, or Microsoft on Azure is perfect for getting a job in an organization that is running services on that platform or that has decided to move to that platform.
• Vendor neutral training like NCTA CloudMaster cloud computing classes and certifications, and CompTIA Cloud+ version 2 (due out in 2018) are much broader. They teach concepts, and critical cloud service, and provide comparison skills. They also teach skills like migration, multi-cloud integration, and how to protect your organziation from cloud vendor lock-in.

If you're in an organization that is moving to a platform that offers training, take it. If you're part of the 50% of those in the Techrepublic article that don't know what tools to use to manage cloud, or part of the 37% that don't have the knowledge to migrate workloads, or part of the 31% that lack confidence to lead a cloud deployment, you should strongly consider vendor neutral training. NCTA CloudMaster gives you all of those skills, and hands on using the tools and platforms.

Even more importantly, single cloud implementations are no longer the norm. More and more organizations are deploying to multiple clouds. Multi-cloud environments have a number of advantages; they also have several complex challenges and costs which, vendor neutral training prepares you to address.

In fact, inadequate requirements identification and planning is why many cloud deployments fail. Having the skills to properly identify requirements, and critically compare cloud services and vendors will make you stand out with any organization moving to, or growing their cloud footprint.

Getting a strong foundation in cloud IT training can help you stay employed and move up in your organization as IT services move to the cloud. Getting comprehensive vendor neutral training and a premier certification such as Certified CloudMaster put you into a seller's market for cloud certified IT professionals. 

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CarverTC offers CloudMaster cloud computing classes and certification preparation in Portland Oregon and across North America.

How the Shift to Cloud can Make or Break Your IT Team and Career

In a recent article, David Linthicum pointed out that sometimes the best and brightest don't always get rewarded in the IT world. He points out some things you may have seen as either a manager or an IT employee, and makes one point in particular: 

"Pay is more a matter of how well an employee can negotiate a salary, than a matter of merit or talent."

It's an unfortunate truth in many industries and seems to be very prevalent in IT for lots of reasons. But David makes the point that he's seen some in the IT world who were resistant to cloud being given promotions and put in areas of leadership, while genuine cloud promoters have been left behind. Unfortunately, we've seen the same thing in client's we've helped move to the cloud.

Finally, David makes the point it doesn't have to be that way. In fact, this disruptive change in IT, this movement of services, and data to the cloud, can be a way for IT managers to adjust their organizations by promoting those with genuine vision, and who see the value of new technology. He gives two good approaches to help managers do that. But the question I feel many managers will be left with is, "How do I begin to vet my staff on how well they embrace the cloud?" I also feel that many IT have been asking that for some time, and, after David's article will do more soul searching over the question, "How do I stand out in this sea of change, and make this into a career opportunity." In this article, I'll provide some strategies to answer both of those questions. In my opinion how organizations and their employees answer that question is critically important because the shift to the cloud can make or break your IT team and career.

Managers: Provide Opportunities for Education

David says that organizations should:

"...use metrics for promotions and raises that value vision and innovation..." and "focus on value delivered by IT," specifically reducing costs, while increasing productivty and agility (all things cloud was made for).

But how does an IT manager do that with an IT team that has its own hierarchy, either written or unwritten? One of the best ways to see who's interested in new technologies and innovative approaches is to offer training. Great training and certification programs are compelling to people who want to advance their career. They're very compelling to people who may feel stuck in the status quo. They aren't the IT stars today, but, training and certification can level the playing field.  

You can see who's interested in training, who goes, who follows up and gets certified, and who wants more. That will give you an idea who values vision and innovation. Then, you can use something you have way too much of, IT challenges and problems, to see who your new stars might be. 

You know what your IT challenges are. They probably range from small and annoying to problems that have been sitting in the corner of your whiteboard for so long they can no longer be erased. You likely have some you've tried to solve, but they keep coming back. Others you've had in the "too hard" box for far too long. Throw them out to your team. Have them put their new knowledge to work brainstorming solutions. Suddenly, the same small set of IT elders who always speak up in the IT all staff will be joined by a number of new voices who now have a grasp of how the cloud can solve your IT problems.  Then you'll find out who understands the promise of cloud, and who can apply the capabilities and benefits of the cloud to solve your real problems. 

Employees: Take Opportunities for Education

Simply put this is your chance to take advantage of this massive paradigm shift to Cloud and make it work to your advantage and move your career forward. Find out what training is available. If you see the direction your organization's IT is going, ask for training to help you get the skills you need to be a part of that transformation. If your organization hasn't made firm decisions on their IT direction yet, ask your manager what skills or new expertise he needs on the team, find training, and ask the organization to invest in you. You'll be a go-getter, and the training you'll get will be a win for you and your organization.   

Managers and Employees: The Right Approach is Key

We offer and recommend vendor neutral cloud training. Vendor specific cloud training such as that from AWS or Azure is great, once you have those systems. Most organizations today, have multi-cloud deployments. Having the skills and tools to properly evaluate and compare cloud services, and providers are essential to know what options you have for solving IT problems now, and what options you'll need to plan for once you're in the cloud. CloudMaster cloud computing classes are a comprehensive series that take students through planning, deployment, sysops, and cloud architecture design. They're all backed by certifications from the Nation Cloud Technologists Association. There's no better, or faster, way to get your team, or yourself, on a solid trajectory to make the most of this shift to the cloud.

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CarverTC offers Cloudmaster cloud computing classes and certification prep across North America.

The CarverTC Approach to CloudMASTER Certification Training

As we have recently decided to start offering public training courses, my contacts have been asking me two questions; "Why now?" and, "What makes you better than other training centers."  The first question comes from the fact that we've offered private training for years and have shied away from public training even when our clients have suggested we should do it. We've answered the "why now" question in a separate article which explains why we added CloudMASTER certification training to our public training schedule. In this article, I'll answer the other question, and explain why we're different, and why we believe we are better than other training centers. 

We Only Teach What We Do

We have a thriving consultancy, and, although we do content marketing, training, development, and cloud, our services are interrelated. Our story tells you how.  Obviously, for anything we teach, we take time to learn the flow of the curriculum to make sure the class is skillfully delivered, but the expertise comes from our experience. If we don't do it, we don't teach it. That helps us ensure that we're adding real, experience based value. 

We Focus on Teaching What We Author

Currently, the only classes on our schedule, are classes CarverTC instructors have authored. Peter Lammers and I were the primary authors of the three CloudMASTER cloud computing classes currently available, and I played a role in designing the CloudMASTER certifications. We've authored other courses, such as Google AdWords, Google Analytics, and NISM Social Media Strategist classes that we offer.  While we may consider offering courses we don't write in the future, for now, we're focusing on the courses we author.

We Address the Challenges of Professional Learning

One of the biggest barriers for us in terms of offering CloudMASTER certification training on a public training schedule, is that we don't like how many training courses are delivered. Sometimes training doesn't work for some people because its all day, every day. While it's good to get students out of their day-to-day life and to immerse them in a new technology, often, it's just not realistic. People come late to class (both online and on-site classes) because they have to put out fires in the morning. The may also leave class early for the same reason. Many students check out early toward the end of the day because emails are backing up and they don't want to work late into the evening doing their day job.

In total, there were four issues we wanted to address, and we believe we have addressed them in a way that allows us to provide a better training experience: 

• How to reach people anywhere: This was the easy one. We addressed this by offering virtual classes using world class software (Go To Meeting) that can facilitate discussions, deliver digital handouts and other information. This lets us deliver classes anywhere where there is an Internet connection.
• Ensure students get follow up support during and after the class: To address this we went back to college to borrow the concept of office hours. We are online at several pre-defined times, after classroom hours on training weeks to answer questions, and provide additional guidance. We also hold office hours weekly for two weeks following course delivery. We also provide email Q&A for 30 days post class. That way, you can ask questions once you're back in your environment, using the knowledge and skills you gained in class. 
• How to respect trainee's professional life, and keep students focused while in class:  These are two different problems that have a single solution --reduced class hours. Most training centers run classes from 9:00 AM to 4:30 PM. They include an hour lunch and two half-hour breaks. So you spend the entire day there (with travel time to and from the training center). Of that  5.5 hours is spent in the classroom, and 2 hours is spent outside the classroom. Our classes are virtual, so there's no travel time. You can attend from home or from the office, whichever let's you stay plugged in and focused. Moreover, our class hours are from 9:00-3:00 Pacific time, with a half hour lunch, and two 15 minute breaks. That's 5 hours of focused class time.  We, and other online training centers, have used this formula successfully. With no travel time and this schedule,  trainees get their start of day, and end of day back for email and other work related tasks. Moreover, cutting down the amount of class time helps students focus. We can often cover the same amount of course material more effectively because students aren't distracted by work tasks, and because our class time ends before end of the day fatigue sets in.  Is there time for sidebars, additional questions, and discussion of personal scenarios? Absolutely, that's what office hours and email Q&A support are for.

Conclusion

We feel that our method of delivery, ensuring that we're only teaching materials we know well, from a place of experience, coupled with class delivery arrangements that respect trainees professional needs, while still providing time and follow up support to address questions,  provides the best possible training experience for the classes on our schedule.

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