Career in Cloud Computing: Red Hot Job Trend

By Ruchi Shrimali

Cloud Computing is the hottest technology in the market these days, used to make storage of huge amounts of data and information easier for organizations. Maintaining servers to store all the information is quite expensive. Cloud computing allows clients to store and maintain data on remote servers that are managed by service providers like Yahoo and Google. This data can then be accessed at will.

Cloud computing services are in demand because it makes life easier for organizations and help them save unnecessary costs in terms of time and money. All the company needs to avail this service is an Internet connection. A career in Cloud Computing is quite in demand these days as IT professionals are realizing that there is a huge potential and scope of growth in the market with this upcoming technology.

Scope of Growth in Cloud Computing Career

It has been estimated that India will need about 3 lakh cloud computing professionals in the coming years. Since it is a new technology and supply of such IT experts is less than the demand in the market, the salary levels of cloud computing experts are high too.

Cloud Architecture like virtualization or SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) is already being implemented in some of the IT giants like Google, Amazon and Microsoft and it is expected that other companies will adopt it soon enough as it reduces their start-up costs and investments, is easier to scale up or down, and is a very flexible and powerful computing platform that does not require any licensure or maintenance.

So if you choose to make a career in Cloud Computing, you can look forward to an annual salary package of Rs 12 to 19 lakh at the entry-level. A middle-level executive usually earns around Rs 20 lakh per annum while those who have 10 to 15 years of experience in the field can earn a package of Rs 30 lakh or more.

How to make a career in Cloud Computing?

Cloud applications and services are quite in demand in the local markets as well as global markets. They are available mainly as web-based development platforms, cloud applications and software, and on-demand infrastructure. The critical skills one would need while making a career in cloud computing is the ability to integrate and combine infrastructure and applications and develop a service-oriented architecture.

Aptech and NIIT provide a few certification courses in Cloud Computing. The NIIT Edgeineers program trains students to work on Windows Azure - the cloud computing platform of Microsoft that makes it easier to store, host, operate, scale, and manage web services and web applications. IBM too has started a course on Cloud Computing along with a few other institutes that are aiming to train cloud architects and cloud computing professionals for the near future.