For all its benefits, including cost-saving and simplification, cloud computing is suffering from a significant problem that has prevented companies from maximizing its potential or even using it: a lack of skill in the technology. A report by IDC (News - Alert) estimated that 1.7 million jobs could not be filled in 2012 because of this deficiency. In spite of the lack of skills, the demand for cloud computing jobs is six times greater than the supply, and will grow annually by 26 percent through 2015.

One of the biggest factors keeping companies from adopting cloud technology is a lack of security expertise. A recent QuoCirca study found that about two-thirds of companies felt they lacked the skillset to secure their IT within a cloud environment and over 70 percent said they lacked the resources.

According to one industry expert, apprehension on the part of IT departments to move to cloud may be short-lived.

“Companies that have a negative perception of cloud services are being held back by concerns about the lack of skills and resources needed to secure such services,” said QuoCirca analyst Bob Tarza, “A cloud-based IAM as a service platform could enable these negative thinkers to quickly and cost-effectively manage identities and provide access to both SaaS (News - Alert) (software as a service) and on-premise applications. With help and encouragement, today’s cloud negative companies could become cloud adopters tomorrow.”

British website v3.co.uk’s “Cloud Computing: State of Play (2013)” study sheds additional light on possible causes for the lack of skill in cloud technology. Nearly three-fourths of respondents felt that universities did not put enough emphasis on the cloud in its coursework. The results also suggested that computer science and information technologies students should avoid highly specialized studies and stay up-to-date on technological developments, given the speed at which IT is changing in recent years.

The rapid growth of the cloud is nothing more than another technology that replaced an outdated one. Experts at MS-DOS application development had to adjust to the Windows environment if they wanted to stay in business. The same held true as desktop computing yielded its dominance to mobile computing. IT departments and cloud vendors may be impatient waiting for the employee market to provide cloud experts, but history suggests that the wait won’t be a long one.