The future of cloud and my advice for building a cloud career

<<< Start >>>

<<< End >>>

Organizations across the globe continue to dramatically accelerate their transition to cloud as a foundation for digital transformation.

There’s never been a better time for a career in cloud technology. 

So what are the steps to start or build your career in cloud?

After a recent Reddit Ask Me Anything® session, our cloud expert Tristan Morel L’horset shares his answers to questions about preparing for a career in cloud—and his predictions on what’s next for the future of cloud technology.

What’s the best path to a cloud career?

This is an area where you don’t need (and wouldn’t have) 20 years of experience or even a computer science degree to build a career. The premise of cloud is constant innovation, and we’re solving for business problems we don’t even know yet. Rely on your intellectual curiosity and think of ways to link technology to complex business problems.

I was a psychology major who went into counterintelligence in the U.S. Air Force and ended up with a career in technology. Cloud is now the forefront of tech innovation; I was interested in new stuff. My path to cloud was to follow my extreme interest in leading-edge tech and how it intersects with business.

How do I get started in cloud?

People always ask, what’s the best platform to start with? The answer is that there is no “best”—no business is a single cloud user. My advice is to just get started; explore cloud certifications across some of the major cloud technologies and choose a platform you’re interested in.

We’re always looking at ways different technologies can solve a client’s problem, and it becomes interesting when you start linking them all. For example, Google Intient solves life science and health care issues; Microsoft Azure enables SAP systems to accelerate their reach consumers; Amazon Web Services (AWS) applies analytics and machine-learning capabilities to drive new customer insights.

It’s all about finding ways to create value for the client.  

<<< Start >>>

<<< End >>>

What skills are most important?

With our recent cloud-first announcement, we’re integrating more than just tech skills into our cloud organization—we’re also including advisory skills. Are you equipped to advise and help clients create solutions to their toughest business problems? Do you have customer design skills?

If cloud exists to solve problems, the way we design the interface for clients and the way they experience tech is a very important aspect of a cloud career.

It’s also important to consider applied intelligence. You need artificial intelligence (AI) and machine-learning skills to be able to make sense of data accessibility in cloud and apply algorithms to create insight.

What’s the future of cloud careers?

Cloud will continue to evolve, enabling us to focus on creativity and individualized customer experiences. Imagine a customized, personal experience when you walk into a pharmacy or a retail store—that’s what cloud will bring.

With new capabilities continually being rolled out, companies can focus on what’s important to get closer to their customers. The biggest career opportunities will likely be in customer experience (CX) design and cloud engineering.

There will also be an increasing need for more cloud-relevant security practitioners in the marketplace. When an organization moves to cloud, there’s the shared security model approach, with functions of security responsibility for both client and provider.

Why Accenture for cloud careers?

There are three major reasons why I believe Accenture is truly the best place to build a career in cloud:

• We’ve built strong relationships with not only large cloud providers such as Google, AWS, Microsoft, Oracle, SAP, Red Hat, Alibaba and more, but also partnerships and investments with thousands of startups and smaller providers.
• We’re one of the only companies whose work focus spans the end-to-end spectrum, from technology to business and strategy consulting and beyond. We don’t manage technology for tech’s sake, but rather technology for business differentiation’s sake.
• We’re investing more than $3 billion in cloud and recently announced the formation of Cloud First. What other firm in the world is making that size of investment?

Ready to harness the power of change and help the world’s leading organizations solve their most complex problems? Check out cloud careers with Accenture.

Copyright © 2020 Accenture. All rights reserved. Accenture, its logo, and New Applied Now are trademarks of Accenture.

This document makes descriptive reference to trademarks that may be owned by others. The use of such trademarks herein is not an assertion of ownership of such trademarks by Accenture and is not intended to represent or imply the existence of an association between Accenture and the lawful owners of such trademarks.