Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2023.  Read them in this 15th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.

Cloud Adoption, Skills & Maturity in 2023

By Drew Firment, VP of Enterprise Strategies at Pluralsight

Unpredictability abounds as enterprises head into 2023. However, there are a few certainties: cloud services and solutions will continue to expand, demand for scarce cloud skills will increase, the federal government's mass transition to cloud will identify new innovation opportunities and the dexterity of businesses will be tested as organizations continue to account for the unknown.

In preparation for the year to come, Pluralsight cloud experts took into account the lessons learned in 2022 to forecast four key trends on the horizon in the world of cloud computing.

1. Fundamental Cloud Computing Skills to Dominate Demand in 2023

While machine learning and artificial intelligence remain top of mind for businesses, fundamental cloud computing skills will continue to be the most relevant and in-demand skills for 2023. According to Pluralsight's State of Cloud report, 75% of tech leaders are building all new products and features in the cloud moving forward - while only 8% of technologists have significant cloud-related skills and experience.

Additionally, according to my colleague Mattias Andersson, principal developer advocate at Pluralsight, there will continue to be high demand for lower-level cloud infrastructure skills as these technologies require more people than the higher-level services do to operate them successfully.

"For example, many organizations now want to own and manage their own Kubernetes clusters, leading them to hire for Kubernetes Administration skills when they could instead offload that to the cloud provider," said Mattias.

2. Business to Shift from Consumers to Creators of Cloud Talent

Shifting away from a talent procurement-only model to fostering and creating the talent a business needs will be the key differentiator of cloud leaders in 2023. Many organizations are starved for the talent that's required to achieve their cloud transformations, while many individuals lack the cloud skills to participate.

Gartner reported that 50% of enterprise cloud migrations will be delayed two years or more in 2022 due to the lack of cloud skills, directly impacting the ability for enterprises to achieve cloud maturity and a return on their technology investments. To overcome these challenges and achieve a sustainable transition to cloud adoption and maturity, enterprises must strategically invest in skills development programs designed to attain cloud fluency at critical mass. It will be important for leaders to migrate and upskill their workforce talent to the cloud in addition to migrating their applications. 

3. Cloud Marketplaces Will Ease Federal Cloud Adoption and Innovation

A major barrier to cloud adoption in the federal government is procuring cloud services and solutions, which is why more and more enterprises in the private sector are embracing the emerging cloud marketplaces. Click-through purchasing, standard agreements, and consolidated billing are just a few benefits of procuring through cloud marketplaces. In fact, in 2021, the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Marketplace accounted for more than $1 billion in transactions.

With more federal agencies shifting their spend to cloud providers and the Independent Software Vendor (ISV) ecosystem, the utilization of cloud marketplaces is a trend to watch for the federal government.

4. Serverless to Surface as Primary Cloud-Native Approach for Businesses

For those who are new to cloud, serverless will be beneficial to businesses pursuing a cloud-native approach: to shift all the details of capacity planning and scaling to the cloud vendors, who can benefit from multi-tenant economies of scale.

"Taking advantage of such a powerful (i.e. higher level of abstraction) system can confer a huge competitive advantage on both organizations and individuals. Focusing on serverless eliminates wasted effort - both in learning the technology and in running systems," said Mattias.

Much Ado About Cloud

Whether you're in the midst of a cloud transformation or just beginning your journey, it is important to keep your ear to the ground on what's working for others, what's holding you or your peers back, and what shifts in your cloud strategy could mean the difference between excelling or falling behind.

Consider the trends above, as well as the current cloud conversations in your industry and determine where your opportunities are for growth, cloud maturity and proficiency, to keep pace with the ever-increasing rate of enterprise technology innovation.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Drew Firment is SVP of Cloud Transformation at A Cloud Guru, a Pluralsight Company. He works closely with business and technology leaders to accelerate cloud adoption by migrating talent to the cloud. Drew was previously Director of Cloud Engineering at Capital One where he led enterprise cloud operations within their Cloud Center of Excellence and migrated the early adopters of Amazon Web Services (AWS) into production. He founded Capital One's cloud engineering college that drove a large-scale talent transformation, and earned a patent for measuring cloud adoption and maturity. Drew is recognized by Amazon as an AWS Community Hero for his ongoing efforts to build inclusive and sustainable learning communities.