This presentation was presented at various VMUG user conferences (Dallas, Chicago, Phoenix, SoCal) in September 2014, and discusses how VMware administrators can close the "cloud skills gap" to stay technically relevant in a fast-changing industry.
Closing Cloud Skills Gap with Automation and Linux
1. Closing the Cloud Skills Gap
How we can prepare ourselves for a future where cloud
computing is even more pervasive
Scott Lowe, VCDX 39
vExpert, Author, Blogger, Geek
http://blog.scottlowe.org / Twitter: @scott_lowe
Colossians 3:17 NIV
3. Before going any further
• Get involved! Audience participation is encouraged and
requested.
• If you use Twitter, feel free to tweet about this session (use
@MyVMUG or hashtag #SoCalVMUG)
• I encourage you to take photos or videos of today’s session and
share them online
• This presentation will be made available online after the event
4. How many of you have
employers currently involved in
a cloud computing project?
5. •50% of businesses believe cloud computing is a high priority
•Cloud-related jobs expected to grow 26% annually
•Virtually all IT job growth will be in cloud-related roles
•An estimated 7 million cloud-related jobs in IT worldwide by
2015
(These statistics taken from an early 2013 IDC white paper available at http://
www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/download/presskits/learning/docs/idc.pdf)
The problem
6. “Unlike IT skill shortages in the past,
solving this skills gap is extremely
challenging, given that cloud brings
a new set of skills, which haven’t
been needed in the past”
— Cushing Anderson, IDC
7.
8.
9. How many of you are actively
seeking to bolster cloud
computing-related skills?
10.
11. •On-demand self-service
•Resource pooling
•Rapid elasticity
•Measured service
•Broad network access
(Taken from http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-145/SP800-145.pdf)
NIST definition of cloud
computing
12. According to the 2013 IDC white paper, these skills were ranked
as most important:
1. Risk management
2. IT service management
3. Project/program management
4. Business-IT alignment
5. Technical skills in cloud implementation
Job skills needed in a cloud
computing environment
13. A sidebar on business-IT
alignment
•Talk to the business: Find out what their goals are, and think
about how IT can help achieve those goals.
•Don’t use IT jargon: The business doesn’t care about IOPS,
RAM, GHz, TB/PB, SAN, NAS, NFS, or VTEPs. They care about
meeting their business goals.
•Try to say “Yes”: Don’t tell the business “No,” instead tell them
how you can help solve their problems.
18. •First and foremost: I’m not saying you all need to become
programmers!
•You do need to understand the basics
•Challenges in moving from development to production and the
evolution of solutions to the problem (DevOps)
•Tools like Vagrant
•Git (or other version control system)
Software development basics
20. •It’s becoming increasingly pervasive
•It’s the foundation for many cloud-related technologies
•It’s an inexpensive solution for a variety of issues
•Key things:
•Pick a distribution (Ubuntu and Red Hat/CentOS seem to
capture most of the mindshare)
•Figure out how to do common tasks (DHCP, DNS, firewall,
web server, proxy, etc.)
Linux
22. •Automation and orchestration are “force multipliers”
•Automation and orchestration can take many different forms
•Scripting languages like PowerShell, Perl, Python, or Ruby
•Configuration management tools like Puppet, Chef, Salt, or
Ansible
•Orchestration tools like vCenter Orchestrator, vCAC, or
OpenStack
•No more “hand crafted” efforts!
Automation & orchestration
tools
24. •Public cloud may be the best fit for some business needs, and
you need to know how public cloud services work
•Some public cloud services include:
•vCloud Air
•AWS
•GCE
•Windows Azure
•Remember: IT-business alignment is critical!
Public cloud services
29. Thank you!
Don’t forget to rate this session and provide feedback (via mobile
app, inside the program guide, or via link sent to your e-mail)
Scott Lowe, VCDX 39
vExpert, Author, Blogger, Geek
http://blog.scottlowe.org / Twitter: @scott_lowe
Colossians 3:17 NIV