The next role that I want to highlight is a Cloud Application Developer

(As previously noted, the responsibilities for each role may be a little different depending on the organization.)

Responsibilities typically include:

• Integrate the various cloud services through application programming interfaces (APIs).
• Develop custom applications within a cloud environment using the organizations lifecycle.
• Design and develop secure cloud products, services, and applications that include:
  • Front/back end, full stack, and web applications.
• Enable cloud application deployment.
• Support, monitor, maintain, and improve the applications.

The focus should be on building cloud-native applications rather than the traditional monolithic ones.

Also, since the goal with cloud is self-service, the applications ideally should incorporate as much automation as possible and even development environments can be automated.

As expected, a software background is very helpful! Examples of applications include: mobile (think of your phone’s app store), gaming, SaaS offerings, internal to your organization (I.E. business applications, analytics), even apps just for the IT department to help manage the private cloud, plus many more...

FYI: The topics in green will be covered in future posts

--Bob

#IWork4Dell

"What is a Service Lifecycle"

I decided to mix it up a little in this post.

In my previous post about the role of a Cloud Application Developer, I mentioned that one of the responsibilities may include "Develop custom applications within a cloud environment using the organization's lifecycle".

What is a lifecycle? Some of our courses contain examples of cloud service lifecycles, including this one:

We use it to help learners understand the process of going from thinking about, to planning, to building, and then running cloud services, but, if you think about it, many of the stages in this lifecycle apply to so many things.

Lets start with something non-technical: This lifecycle would 'mostly work' if you want to build a small shed or greenhouse in your yard. You would certainly start with planning and go through the design, and build. Test, launch and operate would be simple (maybe just put stuff in the shed or start growing flowers) and the feedback might be limited to your neighbors either happy that you have a place to hide your stuff or they are not happy because they have to look at the new structure.

Back to technical: Assume you are a mobile app developer and you come up with a great idea for an app for your company. If you are going to get support so you can have the time and money to build it, you have to come up with a strategy or plan to show that it makes sense. Once you get the support, you have to do a more detailed design, then build, and test as you make progress. When it is getting closer to being ready, you may launch it to a small test group and to test on many mobile devices, then make changes, but eventually you will launch it for real. When it is running, you want to make sure it is running as expected and you want feedback so you can continue the cycle to fix and update it.

I haven't provided enough information yet to start talking in detail about cloud services (so many future topics!). However, since this is a general discussion cloud thread, it might be fun to start thinking about how many times a day that you interact with something 'cloud related'. It could be just checking your Gmail, or using Office 365, you might order something from Amazon or some other online retailer. Have you looked at any real estate and used the map function to see where the property was? If you watch sports, sometimes they post statistics or analytics and you see on the screen "powered by AWS". How many phone apps to do touch on a daily basis? Or websites do you visit? Have you recently taken a ride-share service? Did you have work done this week at your house, maybe by a plumber, HVAC technician, cable installer, electrician? Did they send you a bill using a cloud app or update your customer information via an app? Do you use Alexa, Google translate, or Siri? The list goes on an on!

As I post more job related job roles, hopefully this information provides a little more context and I will tie some of the roles back to the lifecycle.

-Bob

#IWork4Dell

The next role that I will cover is Cloud Architect.

Like with many professions, an architect is an important role because they are responsible for determining how all pieces will fit and work together. They are key decision makers and provide guidance.

In our cloud courses, we highlight some responsibilities for a cloud admin including some that are specified by Gartner.

The day-to-day responsibilities include:
• Lead the cultural change in an organization's cloud adoption.
• Plan a cloud strategy and coordinate adoption.
• Develop and maintain the cloud architecture, including hardware, software, applications, etc.
• Determine best practices for the organization's cloud.
• Estimate and manage cloud costs.
• Collaborate with IT security team to monitor privacy.
• Select cloud service provides and third-party services.
• Create and implement a multi-year road map for the cloud platform.

The public cloud vendors and a number of private vendors, including Dell, offer cloud certification offerings. They are a great way to get started but, like any lead role, it takes time. However, these programs can help if you decide you would like to pursue some type of a cloud career.

If you were to talk with 10 cloud architects, you will likely find their career journeys to be different. Some might have been system admins, others might have focused on compute, networking or storage, others maybe tools and automation, and I could list a bunch more. So, if a cloud architect intrigues you enough, look into it more; you might find it very interesting!

-Bob

#IWork4Dell

The next role that I want to highlight is a Cloud Security Manager.

This is the emerging role, and the responsibilities can vary from organization to
organization. Since the cloud service providers have their own security teams, a
cloud security manager usually coordinates with them to strategize and align
efforts. They must work out different strategies to fulfill compliance requirements
which may not align smoothly with the providers’ offerings

This role may involve the following:

• Responsible for the complete security and risk management strategies of a
  cloud environment.
  
• Designs and employs security measures for the cloud infrastructure, plus all the
  products, services, and applications running on the cloud.
  
• Ensures that security standards and compliance requirements are met.
• Works with cloud providers to plan and implement security policies within the
  organization.
  
• Understands the risks of security failures and their technical and
  business implications.
  
• Manages access to cloud resources using user and group accounts.

You can image this gets more complicated in multi-cloud environments!

--Bob
#IWork4Dell

Digitalization of business is very important because the more automated the business, the better

 Our company decided to digitalize during quarantine. Our company does not have an IT department, so we turned to https://www.networklondon.co.uk/it-consultancy/ for effective digitalization, which was a good idea. These guys are real professionals, and with their help, we were able to get a lot of new customers. If not for them, our company would have gone bankrupt.

The next role that I want to highlight is a cloud service manager.

As I mentioned in my previous posts, the responsibilities for each role (and even the name) may be a little different depending on the organization or company.

Think of a cloud service manager as a visible role that could require some balance of business, management, and technical skills.

• Responsibilities may include:
• Define and manage services.
• Adjust the service portfolio to meet organizational or customer demand.
• Define pricing and tiering policies.
• Monitor efficiency of the pricing model.
• Ensure Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are met.
• Enhance customer satisfaction

For example: Let's assume a company wants to determine if adding a robust database service offering in their private or hybrid cloud makes sense. Mary has been selected as the cloud service manager.

Mary and team will have to reach out to customers (who could be internal) to determine which database features are currently being used and others features that will be necessary or nice to have. They will likely research public cloud database offerings to determine the features, costs, etc. Maybe some internal teams are already using public cloud database services but the costs keep adding up.

Mary and team will have to determine what it would cost for the service to be built in-house, how many people would be needed, what the timeline would be, and how well would it fulfill the needs of the customers/internals. If building in-house makes sense and approval is given, Mary and team would be responsible for designing, building, launching and maintaining the service which would include working with people in roles that I previously posted about.

--Bob
#IWork4Dell

Removed by moderator

really interesting i have no IT SKILLS right now and would love to start with program what school I do and where can i find free courses for this program please

How do I get started?

Rather than replying to your specific situation, I am going to do a broader reply because this question is pretty common and I would image there might be others in this forum who are wondering the same thing.

However, it is a "complex" question and the quick answer is "It depends!" but I will explain.

The current technical depth of an individual is important as well as the desired potential role. If you read through my previous posts regarding the many typical cloud related roles, you will see that although most of the ones I provided focus on technical skills, some rely on business, project management, and leadership skills. There are also other organizational roles that require marketing, finance, and plenty of other skills (yes all still related to the cloud).

I teach in a Masters of IT program so most of my university students are already in some IT-related or IT-adjacent roles. Some have experience with one or more of the public cloud providers (AWS, Google, Azure...) but more than half don't. A majority of my students already have a strong technical background so their "STARTING POINT" is very different than someone just starting college or looking to make a career change.

On the other hand, the courses we offer at Dell and others available in the industry are usually classified as beginner, intermediate and expert levels. Most learning systems/catalogs have filter options to narrow down the course level, length, cost, etc. and some may have recommended "learning paths" and even certification tracks. (We have many cert tracks, including one for cloud).

For anyone who feels they are completely starting from zero, and you are not sure where to begin, browse our other discussion board threads for tidbits from some of our great instructors, or learn more about how some of the products work, or about the certification program, or about Dell's Learning hub, plus more. (https://www.dell.com/community/Education-Services/ct-p/ESEducation)

No matter what training you take, I strongly recommend that you start small, find some topics you are interested in, then look to see what learning paths they are associated with. For any technical topics, if you follow-up with hands-on labs they can really help re-enforce what you have learned.

For those of you who like to play, there are a bunch of books titled "Learn in a Month of Lunches "; I use three of them in my university courses because they have some helpful lab exercises. If you are enrolled in any college classes or still have access to school resources (I.E. a .edu email), ask your school if they have free or discounted access to electronic books. This is a great way to check out a book first to see if you like it.

--Bob
#IWork4Dell