Monthly Archives: April 2017

Hiring a Cloud Professional: Skills to Look For

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I think it’s safe to say that I’ve written a few times about the value of the cloud in business. And, as it turns out, a lot of people agree with me. The cloud is growing incredibly quickly, with cloud services such as Amazon AWS and Microsoft reporting massive upsurges in revenue. For agile businesses such as startups, entrepreneurs have been able to easily adopt the cloud and gain a huge advantage over competitors.

With this increase in demand for cloud services, businesses are looking for cloud-savvy professionals in their IT departments. Perhaps your company is even one of those businesses. With that in mind, these are some of the skills you’ll want to look for when it comes to hiring a cloud professional, or perhaps even learn for yourself.

Data Systems and Databases

Data is the cornerstone of the cloud, and any professional working with it needs to be familiar with the workings of a database in order to qualify. Big Data is increasingly enabled by the cloud, with the sector growing at a similarly rapid rate. In fact, cloud experts are convinced that this trend will become even more pronounced in the future, with businesses storing and accessing their data through the cloud.

SQL and MySQL are standard languages for databases and crucial for any cloud professional to know. However, open source data platforms such as Hadoop and MongoDB. In fact, the former is well suited for processing large volumes of data, making it ideal to embrace the advent of big data.

Linux

While it’s not strictly necessary for working with the cloud, the majority of cloud software platforms are based in Linux. While Linux hasn’t made a huge impact when it comes to desktop computing, it has gained popularity in the cloud community for its rapid innovation and flexibility. Its primary rival is Microsoft Azure, which even includes an option to run Linux’s openSuse OS.

Dual booting your computer is a great first step to start if you’d like to learn the ins and outs of Linux. As an open source operating system, the community is robust and helpful resources are plentiful.

Cloud migration

It can be difficult to switch over to the cloud from typical IT infrastructure, especially as a large business. When it comes time to make the transition, businesses often have to rely on professional services for migration.

Professionals will want to obtain a certificate in migration for the cloud platform of their choice. Giving the complexity and security concerns associated with migration, finding a professional and plan that fits your needs is very necessary.

Quality assurance

QA is one of the most common skills requested in cloud computing job postings, and the cloud presents new challenges to QA developers. QA and QC engineers have always been in demand, and with the expansion of the cloud, ensuring the integrity of a piece of software is more important than ever.

Security

Cyber security for cloud applications is still developing, leaving many systems vulnerable to hackers. With over 90% of cloud applications not secure for enterprise use, the burden falls to developers to secure their systems and protect the organizations that they work for.

Due to mounting security concerns, data protection regulations are being implemented to ensure compliance amongst businesses and leverage fines if their systems are not secure enough. Like many of the other skills on this list, certifications exist for any professional wishing to bring cloud applications up to spec.

Forecast of Fog: How Fog Computing Could Make an Impact

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When it comes to the Internet of Things, connectivity is the name of the game.

Connectivity is, in fact, the appeal of a related technology that could represent another evolution in the same vein as the cloud. In fact, it even has a similar weather-based name to go along with it.

In terms of purpose, this new concept, dubbed “fog computing,” is essentially identical to the cloud; it is still intended to allow users to store and retrieve files without the need for a costly server infrastructure. However, the difference lies in the way the data is handled. Fog computing creates a “fog” of data; scattered packets that don’t contain the whole of any file.

This approach makes it much more difficult for attackers to steal information. Any attempts to retrieve files illegitimately only allow for access to one part of the data, giving attackers a garbled, incomplete mess. This is because, unlike cloud computing, fog computing involves a network of smaller servers, called fog nodes, that distribute packets of data. Nowhere in the fog network is any file stored in its entirety.

The other advantage of fog computing is that the decentralized fog nodes enable data to be closer to the businesses that need to access it. The disadvantage of the cloud is that data still has to travel from servers to wherever it’s needed, reducing performance. Fog computing bypasses some of these concerns and enables faster data retrieval. In fog computing, data centers are smaller, easier to place, and ideally as widespread as possible.

In fact, some fog nodes are so small that they can be placed anywhere that they can connect to the network. Power poles, vehicles, and even oil rigs can host fog nodes and widen the network. Ideally, fog-enabled devices are situated at the edge, right where data is needed immediately. With this larger, less centralized network, doors open to monitor new types of data, particularly as it relates to machine to machine communications. Fog computing allows data to be analyzed and acted upon in seconds.

It’s the ideal marriage of the cloud and the Internet of Things, two concepts that have gained a lot of ground among technology and data experts in the last several years. Cloud computing, though certainly a disruptive technology, has faced scrutiny for the security issues associated with sending raw data over the Internet, particularly if sensitive data is subject to regulation. Its fog-based counterpart offers an approximation of cloud capabilities with the accessibility of IoT devices.

However, the cloud is not going away anytime soon. Fog computing is a great complement to the cloud, but does not process massive amounts of historical data the same way that the cloud does. Plus, with fog computing being an emerging technology, its capabilities may not surpass the cloud in many cases. For now, it offers businesses the opportunity to improve their data infrastructure without replacing any cloud services they might already be using.

In the future, we will see fog computing delivering valuable data that can help make business and technology more efficient and interconnected. The OpenFog Consortium is a collaboration between a number of high profile organizations, including Intel, Cisco, and Microsoft, with the intent of promoting widespread fog computing usage. After all, like other IoT devices, fog computing becomes much more effective the more devices that are integrated into the network.