Study finds only 8 percent of tech workers have significant cloud-related skills

Pluralsight, a Draper-based technology workforce development company, has released its 2022 “State of The Cloud,” which compiles survey results from more than 1,000 technologists and leaders in the United States, Europe, Australia and India on current trends and challenges in cloud strategy and learning.

While the study found that 75 percent of tech leaders say they’re building all-new products and features in the cloud moving forward, only 8 percent of technologists have significant cloud-related skills and experience. Additionally, 64 percent of respondents say that they are new to cloud learning and are looking to build basic cloud fluency.

Pluralsight said that according to Management consulting firm McKinsey, cloud adoption is crucial to an organization’s success, with more than $1 trillion in potential earnings in the cloud up for grabs across Fortune 500 companies by 2030. Yet, cloud skills gaps exist for many technologists today. Pluralsights 2022 “State of Upskilling” report, released earlier this year, found that 39 percent of respondents ranked cloud computing as a top personal skills gap.

“As organizations begin making heavier investments into the cloud, they must dedicate resources and time to ensure their technologists are up to the task of cloud transformation,” said Drew Firment, vice president of enterprise strategies at Pluralsight. “Findings from our ‘State of Cloud’ report show that most technologists only have a basic familiarity with cloud technologies. Tech leaders need a cloud strategy that provides confidence and predictability in their ability to build cloud maturity at scale and that starts with ensuring they can upskill their teams on cloud technologies.”

Pluralsight’s report gathered data on organizational cloud maturity and cloud strategy. Nearly half (48 percent) of organizations rate themselves as having high levels of cloud maturity, while only 7 percent of organizations have made no investments into the cloud. The study also revealed that technology companies are more likely than any other sector to rate themselves as having a high level of cloud maturity.

There are many different ways that organizations can drive toward cloud maturity, Pluralsight said. In the survey, 45 percent of organizations say they design cloud strategies for speed and business value. Additionally, 39 percent of organizations are working to optimize for cloud-native with containers and serverless and 38 percent of organizations enable hybrid architectures with distributed cloud.

Security is a top challenge to leveling up cloud maturity, regardless of the organization’s current level of maturity, with 45 percent of organizations saying that security and compliance concerns are the No. 1 cloud maturity challenge.

Findings of the report also revealed a disconnect between organizational and individual cloud maturity. Business leaders reported high confidence in their organizations’ cloud strategies while individual contributors report feeling new to cloud technologies.

Despite employee skills gaps, growing cloud skills internally was not one of the top strategies business leaders used for reaching organizational cloud maturity. Only 37 percent of organizations use internal cloud upskilling as a key strategy for cloud maturity. However, cloud skills gaps rank as the second-largest cloud maturity challenge, with 43 percent of organizations agreeing that cloud skills gaps in their organizations affect cloud maturity.