Skilled IT professionals needed in the cloud

Businesses across the United States are looking to the cloud to expand their IT resources, though in some instances they may need extra help to streamline the integration.

The cloud, and virtualized technology in general, is expanding the role of the IT professional, reports PC World. The demands of the new system on businesses may be too great for their current IT departments to handle at first, as an enterprise will likely use several unique cloud applications within its infrastructure. Also, the role of IT professionals will expand to go beyond network management to include certain considerations, such as applications troubleshooting, system integration and data distribution.

Furthermore, the media outlet states that IT technicians will have to focus more on how the cloud will help innovate their businesses' products

"Most of the work going forward will be integration and architectural in nature. There will be a need for people in all levels who are thinking about a composite world. You have to think about how parts fit, which is an architectural mindset," said Bob Kelly, Microsoft vice president for cloud and server management.

IT departments the world over are preparing for the cloud computing era. According to a study by Information Week Analytics, SaaS adoption is up 13 percent from 2010, with 60 percent of respondents saying they have already implemented the architecture.