The cloud may change the role of IT professionals for the better

Information technology officers worldwide may have been worried recently that the cloud and managed service providers would effectively put them out of the job. The ability of the cloud to move a company's computing demands to a virtual site, which is heralded by experts as a cost-cutting measure, could, in theory, cause companies to scale down their IT departments.

However, according to a leading research scientist in the field, the cloud likely won't do away with the IT profession. Instead, as reported by the Register, the cloud stands to redefine the role of these employees.

"It is hard to predict what will happen when cloud is a prevalent reality. But I assume that the pace of innovation will increase, since the IT researchers and developers will have more time and resources to dedicate to creative tasks " Marin Litoiu, IBM research director, told the news source.

The demand for a greater array of skills for IT professionals may lead to further cloud innovation. According to CIO Update, these professional must now focus on how to innovate their business operations and effectively shift their computing processes to the platform.