Dive Brief:
- Amazon announced the launch of its cloud upskilling bundle, AWS Skill Builder, under a subscription model for teams and individuals, according to a company blog post published Tuesday.
- AWS first introduced Skill Builder, a digital learning platform with free on-demand training modules, last fall. The new subscription service incorporates builder labs that cover common cloud scenarios and AWS Jam, which challenges users to solve open-ended problems.
- The instructional package also incorporates AWS Cloud Quest, a “role-based game where your mission is to help citizens of a virtual city by learning and building cloud solutions for their challenges,” according to the post.
Dive Insight:
For businesses aiming to reap the benefits of cloud migration, finding and developing the necessary tech talent remains a major obstacle. Three-quarters of the over 9,000 IT leaders, human resource professionals and industry experts polled for Skillsoft’s 2021 Global Knowledge IT Skills and Salary Report singled out critical skills gaps as an impediment to modernization.
Cloud spend is expected to grow at a rate exceeding 20% through the end of 2022, and AWS just came off a year of 35% growth, based on Gartner’s analysis of the worldwide IaaS public cloud services market.
Upskilling existing workforce and training the next generation of cloud technicians is a concern for cloud service providers and for businesses throughout the economy.
In the banking sector alone, more than one-third of 250 senior banking leaders polled by Publicis Sapient and Google Cloud reported lack of key technical skills as a significant barrier to cloud migration.
Amazon Web Services is the largest player in IaaS, with 39% of market share, according to the latest Gartner analysis. Microsoft, the second largest cloud provider, trails AWS with 21% of the IaaS market.
Seven in 10 of IT leaders cited lack of cloud skills as an urgent concern in a survey conducted by Cloudreach and AWS earlier this year.
