Career in Cloud Computing: Guide to Kickstart & Become an Expert

You may probably have heard of the unmet demand for cloud computing. The rise of interest and usage for cloud computing career opportunities has exponentially changed the skill set required in the modern industry. As more and more companies turn towards cloud-based services from their traditional data-centric approach, many cloud computing career opportunities have popped up in the job market.

As many companies are undergoing this major transformation, there is a need for IT staffers and cloud experts to extract the best outcome from the investment done by a company by leveraging the cloud-based architecture.

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Various cloud computing jobs are prevailing in the market these days. These cloud computing jobs range from interns, architects, developers and DevOps engineers, to security experts and data scientists who remain actively involved in cloud-related work. Usually, a successful career in cloud computing does not merely revolve around the cloud and its deployment and maintenance; it requires managerial and leadership skills. A combination of these skills will heighten your designation, from an architect to an administrative role.

Almost every type of business is adopting cloud-based models, and so by 2021, cloud computing is expected to grow into 300-billion-dollar business (approx) globally. 

Flexibility, cost-effectiveness, smoother operations, and better storage are some of the benefits of cloud computing. Organizations find cloud computing highly useful for them as it allows them to use storage space where they can store their files, emails, data, etc. This helps organizations to use cost-effective measures yet use the data to their benefit by accessing it from anywhere and share with the stakeholders.

Skills Required for Better Career Opportunities in Cloud Computing

To better understand and appreciate its relevant opportunities, you need to first comprehend the different skills you need for a better cloud computing career. Usually, you have to have a preliminary knowledge of networking, storage, and virtualization. 

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Apart from this, the top cloud computing skills that are in demand in the job market are –

• Database skills
• Understanding of serverless architecture
• Cloud model types and their characteristics
• Cloud migration and deployment techniques
• DevOps and agile development methodologies
• Autoscaling and migration techniques
• Machine learning and artificial intelligence

A career in cloud computing is highly promising if one has the right skill sets. These skill sets are useful for garnering better opportunities as they equip individuals to handle responsibilities that solve business problems. 

Each of these skill sets is useful and serves some purpose. For example, database management allows one to use queries and create reports and copy data into Excel for better analysis along with other uses. Serverless architecture helps in scalability and flexibility at a lesser cost. Similarly, other skills hold significance as well that open more cloud computing job opportunities.

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Cloud Computing Service Providers

Now, let us understand the various firms and companies that provide cloud computing support and services. Modern cloud service providers offer all the different services that help users in different ways to migrate, upgrade, auto-scale, monitor, and secure cloud data for better availability and usage. 

Some of the top cloud service providers (CSPs) are:

• Amazon Web Services (AWS)
• Google Cloud
• Microsoft Azure
• IBM Cloud
• Alibaba Cloud
• SAP
• VMWare
• Salesforce
• Rackspace Cloud
• Oracle

Time Needed to Learn Cloud Computing

The innovation of cloud and cloud framework is reaching a spectrum of spheres. As betokened by IDC, by 2020, around 60% of all IT infrastructure, and 60 to 70 per cent of all the different products, administrations, and innovations will use the cloud. 

It is more beneficial to be the early adopter and estimate the time required to master cloud skills for a better career in cloud computing.

The time duration solely depends on your existing knowledge of computer science and cloud architecture. Also, to earn a degree in cloud computing, you have to dedicate four years. However, some accelerated programs/crash courses and certifications are available that can jumpstart your career in cloud computing. 

Cloud Computing Job Roles and Openings

To make full use of cloud computing career opportunities, you need to understand the different cloud computing career opportunities and roles available revolving around the cloud. 

In the past three years, it has been found that the job search in Indeed (indeed.com) related to the cloud (such as cloud architect, cloud developer, cloud engineer, cloud security, etc.) rose to a percentage of 108, as reported. Similarly, the interest and craze of employers also grew to 33%. 

The market is expected to grow and expand in the coming times. The demand for cloud computing seems to rise and is expected to reach USD 791.48 billion in 2028 (Source).

Let us list the various job openings available in the different verticals of the cloud computing market:

• Cloud Architect: Availability of approx. 6.21% of openings in this role
• Cloud Engineer: Availability of approx. 3.61% of openings in this role
• Full-stack cloud Developer: Availability of approx. 4.19% of openings in this role
• Cloud Service Developer: Availability of approx. 3.0% of openings in this role
• Development Operations Engineer: Availability of approx. 5.99% of openings in this role
• Cloud System Administrator: Availability of approx. 1.53% of openings in this role
• Cloud Data Engineers: Availability of approx. 2.65% of openings in this role
• Information Technology Architect: Availability of approx. 7.92% of openings in this role
• Cloud Network Engineer: Availability of approx. 2.0% of openings in this role

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Top 9 Highest Paying Cloud Computing Jobs

Modern businesses are frequently adopting Software as a Service (SaaS), Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), and Platform as a Service (PaaS) as per requirement. This is the reason why cloud providers are also becoming more competitive. 

The recent acquisition of RedHat by IBM is more likely to be a competitive cloud player. On the other hand, other top-notch cloud providers are extending their cloud features by implementing AI and ML with the cloud. All these gave rise to some new job roles in the cloud computing market. 

To understand cloud computing career opportunities and prospects, and future growth, you need to know the top paid cloud computing jobs. In this section, you will see the list of top-paid cloud computing job profiles.

1. Cloud Consultant

The role of a cloud consultant is to provide various technical research and studies and find the best cloud plans for your company. You will be responsible for analyzing and suggesting the best cloud services and architecture based on your company’s requirements. This kind of job role is usually reserved for professionals with strong IT backgrounds.

There are various types of jobs in cloud computing, and cloud consultant is one of those. A cloud consultant is responsible for making sure that the company is familiar with the services of cloud computing. They document and make reports or presentations to present in front of the senior management. Troubleshooting advice or technicalities is also another area of work for the consultants. They make sure that they smooth out the operations by providing a strong presence of technical support. 

As discussed earlier, the skills required in cloud computing jobs, similarly, there are certain skill sets needed from a cloud consultant. A cloud consultant should have an in-depth knowledge of cloud computing, strong communication skills, problem-solving, analytical, etc. 

In India, on average, a cloud consultant procures the compensation of 11.1 lakhs per annum, and the average salary ranges from 4.8 lakhs per annum to 24.4 lakhs per annum (Source). The salary range may differ depending on the location, skill sets, experience, company, etc.

Entry Level Salary: 49,738 USD

Top Earning: 72,120 USD

Read: Top 7 Cloud Computing Applications in Real World

2. Cloud Reliability Engineer

 If you feel you have strong suits for problem-solving ability, this career opportunity will give you an upper hand in exercising your brain. Such cloud engineers are responsible for monitoring, maintaining, and patching different cloud-related issues. These types of candidates need to have a vast knowledge of the entire cloud computing skillset.

The cloud reliability engineer’s work includes improving the cloud operations and providing resources to troubleshoot the problems. They are required to identify the problems and address them on time, so the organization’s loss does not happen. Moreover, they are also required to understand the pipelines and manage the load. Most importantly, they are responsible for the performance and monitoring of the platforms of the organization.

Some of the skills required from a cloud reliability engineer are an in-depth understanding of cloud technologies, concepts of DevOps, Linux, CI/CD, troubleshooting, collaboration, communication, etc.

On average, the cloud reliability engineer procures the compensation of 12.5 lakhs per annum. The average salary ranges from 4.6 lakhs per annum to 27.4 lakhs per annum (Source). The salary may differ according to various factors.

Entry Level Salary: 64,214.02 USD

Top Earning: 1,04,965 USD

3. Cloud Infrastructure Engineer

In this job role, the responsibility revolves around developing infrastructure for cloud systems and its associated network. Infrastructure engineers work closely with hardware engineers and developers to make an efficient cloud framework for the organization. 

The cloud infrastructure engineer holds the responsibility of developing cloud networks that helps in the storage of data. Supporting and deploying the company’s cloud infrastructure is also the responsibility of the cloud infrastructure engineer.  They are also responsible for troubleshooting any problem that may arise. 

Some of the skills that are required from the cloud infrastructure engineer are DevOps, Containerization, Database skills, Programming skills, etc.

On average the cloud infrastructure engineer procures the compensation of 8.0 lakhs per annum. The average salary ranges from 4.0 lakhs per annum to 18.3 lakhs per annum (Source).

Entry Level Salary: 72,730 USD

Top Earning: 1,49,175 USD

4. Cloud Security Engineer

 Securing the cloud is one of the most critical aspects of cloud-based solutions. That is where the cloud security engineer plays a role in the team. In this career opportunity, you will exercise your security skill set to analyze the existing cloud architecture and provide improved security measures wherever necessary. 

You will also be responsible for inspecting risk assessment, analyzing threats, and providing security to the cloud data. For this job role, excellent coding skills with advanced threat detection techniques will bring you to the number one spot. Other than that, you need to have sound knowledge of Linux and Windows systems.

Some of the skills that are required from the cloud security engineer are networking, containerization, visualization, web services, networking, APIs, etc.

On average the salary procured by the cloud security engineer is 8.2 lakhs per annum. The average salary ranges from 3.7 lakhs per annum to 26.0 lakhs per annum (Source).

Entry Level Salary: 67,918 USD

Top Earning: 1,14,965 USD

5. Cloud Security Architect

 Some companies ask for more advanced and sophisticated security measures for their cloud infrastructure. It is the responsibility of the cloud security architect to design and innovate security architecture and preserve the deployed data and cloud/hybrid systems from any threat or attack.

This role is also accountable for leading the security vision and construct security policies for better cloud protection. To apply in this job role, a minimum of 5 years of experience in the field of cybersecurity or cloud security engineering is usually preferred.

Some of the skills required from the Cloud Security Architect are cloud risk management, business architecture, privacy architecture, cloud security architecture, etc.

IT is considered as one of the high paying cloud computing career. On average the salary procured by a cloud security architect is 25.0 lakhs per annum. The average salary ranges from 10.6 lakhs per annum to 45.5 lakhs per annum (Source).

Entry Level Salary: 74,095 USD

Top Earning: 1,29,662 USD

6. Cloud Architect

In this cloud-based career opportunity, you will be exercising by creating cloud-based networks and merging multiple remote servers. These architects also need to have practical exposure and knowledge of cloud storage, cloud services, and how to deploy or migrate a system from scratch. Cloud Architects are superb tech-experts with skilled programming and networking abilities.

The cloud architect is also responsible for supervising the system of the company and providing the solutions to the cloud infrastructure. They are also responsible for strategising company’s cloud computing. 

The skills required from a cloud architect are programming skills such as Java, Python, C#, networking, database, AWS, communication, security, etc.

On average a cloud architect gets the salary of 21.0 lakhs per annum. The average salary ranges from 9.0 lakhs per annum to 40.0 lakhs per annum (Source). The salary may differ depending on the location, job role, skill sets, company, experience, etc.

Entry Level Salary: 74,095 USD

Top Earning: 1,32,132 USD

Learn more: Cloud Engineer Salary in India

7. DevOps Cloud Engineer

 DevOps engineers are expert IT professionals with in-depth knowledge of different IT sectors and relevant technologies. They also have an extensive programming skillset. They work in coordination with other cloud developers to integrate various cloud-oriented solutions. This job role is also responsible for handling integrated cloud-based projects and analyzing the system as well as cloud architecture.

The DevOps cloud engineer is responsible for developing softwares for the company. Conducting security testing, managing infrastructure, deployment and management of cloud.

Some of the skills required from the DevOps Cloud Engineer are the knowledge of cloud, testing, security, automation, programming, etc.

On average the DevOps Cloud Engineer pgets the high compensation of 7.4 lakhs per annum. The average salary ranges from 4.3 lakhs per annum to 17.0 lakhs per annum (Source).

Entry Level Salary: 66,687 USD

Top Earning: 1,35,845 USD

8. Data Science Engineer

 Their role is to create data science solutions and analyze the data traffic for their organization. Their involvement helps in improvising the execution strategies to improve the organization’s performance. This is a specialized role and requires a data analysis skillset along with big data handling and expert programming abilities. 

Data Science Engineer is also responsible for developing, constructing and testing the architectures. There goal is to make sure the data remains available and accessible. Using their technical expertise, they recommend the measures to increase the security , quality, or  reliability of the system.

On average the salary procured by the Data Science Engineer is 8.9 lakhs per annum. The salary ranges from 3.3 lakhs per annum to 30.0 lakhs per annum (Source).

Entry Level Salary: 69,687 USD

Top Earning: 1,36,240 USD

9. Cloud Data Scientist & Head ML Engineers

They lead and create new algorithms and data models for the organization. These cloud computing experts are also responsible for creating reliable infrastructure and ensuring integrity and compliance in cloud data. The vital part is they keep monitoring the metrics essential for the organization. upGrad provides courses for these specialized domains.

Entry Level Salary: 1,11,139 USD

Top Earning: 2,09,930 USD

Conclusion

So, now you are familiar with all the differences. For a successful career in cloud computing, you need to plan for the long term. You should also know the pros and cons of cloud computing and try to complete some on-demand courses on the cloud and its relevant field.

At upGrad, we offer the Advanced Certification in Cloud Computing program.

Our course will teach you the basic and advanced concepts of cloud computing along with the applications of these concepts. You will learn from industry experts through videos, live lectures, and assignments. Moreover, you’ll get access to upGrad’s exclusive career preparation, resume feedback, and many other advantages. Be sure to check it out.