What are your top tips for IT workers who feel threatened by the move to Cloud Computing?

Get informed.

Cloud computing is not a nebulous nefarious threat. It’s an outsourcing model that is growing in popularity. The more you know about it, the less there is to be afraid of.

Like all IT solutions, cloud computing is a mixed bag with strengths and weaknesses. The more informed you are, the better prepared you'll be to effectively utilize it or explain why it's not the best approach to solving your specific problem.

Brielle,

My top tips for IT workers who feel threatened by the concept or move towards the cloud are:

1 - Learn about it. Knowledge is a great tool to combating fear. There are many excellent sources of information about what constitutes cloud and what its potential benefits are for an organization.

2 - Experiment with it. Start small, and at a personal/consumer level, but start looking at different technologies that are in the cloud. There's a thread elsewhere on Focus that speaks of people's favorite cloud apps, and products like DropBox, Evernote, Carbonite, etc are mentioned. Seeing the benefit first hand will have a positive impact.

3 - Get up to speed. As John indicates, cloud computing is a sourcing model for business resources, and by understanding how to use it, one can stay ahead of the curve, rather than being dragged along unwillingly.

The Cloud is neither panacea nor vaporware. Much of the hype is real, and proper utilization of it will benefit many businesses -- large and small alike.

IT folks are a very respected and innovative group. I know some of us hoard information from each other for survival and vanity. With that said, learn learn learn and find out ways to help your company utilize these new techniques and you will be just fine.

I think if you are an IT employee who feels threatened by Cloud Computing then you may not fully understand what Cloud Computing is. I often talk about how Cloud can't replace IT but it can be used as part of an IT Transformation, and within one part of that transformation there may be the need to strategically look at IT skill sets today and where they should be. Cloud Computing can be used to handle some of the services that you need to run but perhaps don't require strategic skill sets. Now, the threat in this is how the company wants to deal with this and what the culture is. Some companies, I would argue that MOST companies, would retrain these employees so that they posses the skill sets needed to be part of the future IT organization. This example isn't a Cloud issue, perhaps Cloud is the catalyst but you could argue the same for Outsourcing or Offshoring.

I would encourage IT workers to learn about Cloud Computing and how it can help them in their current job. Many Cloud vendors have tools and best practices that can be leveraged for running your internal services better.

The more IT workers know and understand about Cloud Computing the more likely they are to be able to recommend a potential business use case within their company. Quite possibly that could be within IT to help IT run better. As a senior IT manager I would be firing any of those people.

Like just about every other change in IT, cloud computing opens up lots of new opportunities. Unless you are so tightly focused on a very narrow, singular career path or technology then there are many opportunities for personal and professional development. Here are a few:

Application Development. The whole model of application development is being turned upside down. It's no longer just about languages, it's about platforms. aPaaS (application platform as a service) is creating a new and exciting models for application "construction". VMforce, Heroku, Engine Yard, Google App Engine, Azure and many others are offering new design-to-deployment platforms that will accelerate the cloud application life cycle. These new wave developers will be in demand.

Cloud Architecture. The cloud is supposed to make things simpler - right? Well, maybe not... Designing the right mix of private, hybrid and public cloud services will be a major undertaking in the future. We used to talk about "enterprise architects" as being the uber designers of mission critical systems. They will still be important, but people who can figure out the right balance of infrastructure, services, security, policies and governance to make clouds a viable option will be a valuable asset.

Big Data Architecture. Talk about a wide open field... The rate at which data is being created is staggering. But correlating that data and extracting value from it will be an even bigger challenge. Gathering up all the relevant social data that lives in the "cloud", and then figuring out how to turn it into an competitive advantage will be worth LOTS of money. If your interested, read how leading edge companies view this challenge - http://bit.ly/dEMXQD

These are just a few examples of where the next generation of IT is taking us. As leaders, our challenge is to get people to feel comfortable making a leap of faith in some instances. The downturn in the economy has not helped this problem. People need security. But at the same time, they need to look past the walls of their comfort zone. If they don't, there's plenty of innovative and energetic people out there will step up to the next big thing.

Finally, the enterprise itself has to adopt a culture of innovation and change. If it's not ready to step into the new world where the boundaries between the enterprise, consumer and employee have essentially vanished, then it's going to be hard to motivate IT people who are stuck maintaining yesterday's stuff. This is a group effort people!

--"As a senior IT manager I would be firing any of those people."

Scott, given that you mention retraining earlier in your comments, wouldn't it have been better to suggest educating your nervous staff on what Cloud Computing can mean to them?

From my experience, when IT workers feel threatened by Cloud it is not just about the technology or not understanding what cloud is.

Moving to the cloud is not simply about the technology, it is a behavioural rather than a technological change.

So our solution is simple: Communication.

If you can, talk to your manager to get information on the company's cloud rood map, get involved, look at what you do everyday and suggest a task / service that could be made cloud ready.

And the most important thing is to be positive - IT moves and improves all the time.

"Cloud computing is not a nebulous nefarious threat. It’s an outsourcing model that is growing in popularity. The more you know about it, the less there is to be afraid of."

Per John's previous comment. I agree. But let me add this, if top management is not on-board with cloud computing or some variant then you may be working for a company that is not interested in moving their IT technologies forward. But $$$'s now dictate what companies can and cannot do. They just may not be able to cost justify research and education in the cloud direction yet. Ask your managers what they think and make your assessments from their feedback.

In 1985 I read an article that talked about CASE tools and how their code generating capabilities would eliminate programmers by 1990. There were other articles about how COBOL was a dead language and if you were on that platform you better get off quickly.

My company currently employs two COBOL programmers.

As others have said, stay informed but don't panic!

Opps, typing too fast yesterday. In the last sentence in my post above I meant to say "As a senior IT manager I wouldn't be firing any of those people." my proofreading = fail.

LOL, happens to me all the time, Scott.

I find that proofreading accuracy increases *after* that document has been sent to a large number of people. :)

Just stop.

There is nothing an IT person should fear about the cloud, as long as they are willing to educate themselves on the process, its differentation and how to manage it appropriately.

Now with that said, do not be the doubting Thomas, and realize the cloud is inevitable. It is not a fad, or a short lived experiment. Do not preach against it and act foolish towrds its real benefits.

While the cloud may not serve all purposes, it will for the most part positively improve all business types in one way or another. For this reason, as an IT professional you must perform your due diligence around these products and understand their benefits for your organization.

Be willing to not just evangelize, but to explain, demonstrate and understand the possible bottom line improvements to your companies P&L. In other words, go the extra mile and outshine your competition.

As Andrew stated..."The Cloud is neither panacea nor vaporware. Much of the hype is real, and proper utilization of it will benefit many businesses -- large and small alike."

The world is changing - IT pros need to realize that and start throwing themselves headfirst into this brave new world. Don't feel threatened, feel excited about this new challenge.

Remember what got you into IT in the first place? The excitement, the ability to build something really cool, the hacking? That's all alive and well and sitting in a cloud startup somewhere, meanwhile traditional IT has become a little old and dusty.

So see this as a massive opportunity and embrace it!