With the current popularity cloud computing is experiencing, it is not surprising to expect that it will have a great impact on the global economy. In fact, according to the International Data Corporation, it is expected for cloud computing to generate at least 14 million jobs worldwide. In a recent Forbes article by Joe McKendrick, he pointed out 5 ways in which cloud computing will change how businesses are implemented. According to him, cloud computing will also indirectly affect jobs.
In McKendrick’s article “5 Ways Cloud Computing Is Disrupting Everyone’s Job”, he noted that because procurement of cloud computing resources can be done through a credit card, everyone can have access to it. And with that access, it is highly probable that IT will no longer be limited to a particular IT department only. Instead, the IT professionals will be part of each department using cloud computing. According to McKendrick, executives within the lines of business have greater IT budgets than their counterparts in the IT department. But, it doesn’t mean that IT executives will be eased out of companies. These IT executives will be advising the businesses as well as offer tactical and strategic guidance so that line-of-business executives can identify and select the suitable resources for their departments.
Secondly, as cloud computing offers a venue for simulations and tests, it is expected for large businesses to test new ideas and/or launch them with lesser investment than before. This means that new lines of business can go on with minimal out-of-pocket costs and not wait for budget to be approved before these business lines can be tested and simulated. With cloud computing, business executives will have the confidence to do more experiments and not be afraid of failures because such tests and simulations don’t cost as much as the pre-cloud computing years.
Thirdly, even those people who aren’t technologically trained are provided with platforms to create their own applications. In the past, it takes so long for IT departments to provide the necessary applications or interfaces primarily because IT employees were overworked and there were just too many requests to serve. With cloud computing, even a sales manager will just need to go online and create his own front-line applications to check regional sales data.
Fourthly, according to McKendrick, outsourcing will soon be irrelevant because cloud computing is making it possible for service brokerages to provide services which they didn’t even develop. The cloud can provide a venue for services to be delivered to customers around the world. In fact, offshore jobs wouldn’t even matter because the cloud can host communications applications anywhere. It can happen that the call center agent is in India serving his European customers while the communication applications are hosted in a cloud server in the United States.
Lastly, everyone will eventually be using cloud computing. According to McKendrick, every organization regardless of business will be in the clouds because it can offer a strategic advantage to a lot of businesses. Information and solutions will be delivered to customers through the clouds. It may also happen that some businesses can provide virtualized services to their partners and customers.
As more and more businesses and organizations move to the clouds, job descriptions in line-of-business departments will eventually be changed to include work previously done by staffs in IT departments.
