Those individuals with virtualization skills and cloud expertise can earn a much higher salary right now compared to professionals in other areas of IT. Virtualization technology is maturing and spreading throughout datacenters, and the skills needed to implement and operate it are currently in high demand.

Despite a down economy, virtualization has proven itself recession resilient. Server virtualization has altered the way people manage the datacenter, and it's become a fundamental technology for many organizations. But purchasing virtualization software and licenses is only a small slice of the duties. Deciding how to architect and implement your assets, as well as how to manage them on an ongoing basis is a much bigger chunk of the pie, and finding people with that knowledge or ability may not be as easy as you would imagine.

Last September, the analyst and consulting firm Enterprise Management Associates (EMA) released a research report on virtualization that found a lack of skills or knowledge was the No. 1 barrier to success with virtualization, while lack of time and/or people was third at 36 percent. According to Andi Mann, VP of research at EMA, these findings are consistent with EMA research going back to early 2006, with skills being one of the top three issues every time.

Read the rest of this InfoWorld article to find out what Andi Mann had to say.