The 2023 Cloud Skills Report
The survey canvassed the opinions of 500 IT decision-makers (ITDMs) from the UK, Benelux, North America, and Australia. It found that almost all (95%) of the ITDMs believe their team has been negatively impacted by the cloud-skills gap. This is likely due to the fact that the cloud is constantly evolving, and there is a high demand for skilled professionals who can keep up with the latest trends and technologies.
Businesses missing out on key cloud benefits
The survey also found that businesses are missing out on key cloud benefits as a result of the skills gap. For example, 43% of respondents noted their organizations have struggled to keep up to date with security and compliance, 41% have had application performance issues and outages, and 38% have missed KPIs on delivering new innovations to the business. One-third even said they had to restrict their use of the cloud altogether.
Increased cyber security risks
Organizations are not only failing to capitalize on the full potential of their cloud investments, but they are also putting themselves at increased risk of cyber-attacks and regulatory breaches due to a shortage of cloud skills.
This is particularly serious as far as security is concerned. The high cost of data breaches is well-documented, with the latest data from IBM putting the global average cost at £3.6 million. This figure is likely to increase in the coming years as cyber-attacks become more sophisticated and businesses collect more sensitive data.
Businesses can mitigate the risks associated with the cloud skills gap by investing in cloud managed services. Cloud Managed Service Providers (MSPs) have the expertise and resources to help businesses manage their cloud infrastructure and applications securely and efficiently.
Managed services seen as key to bridging the gap
When looking to the future, the IT decision-makers were confident that the cloud-skills gap within their organization would improve in the years to come, with 87% saying they believe it will get better in the next five years. In the interim, the survey respondents view investing in cloud managed services as the key to success. Almost all (93%) respondents agree that investing in cloud-managed services will be a priority in the next 12 months.