Dive Brief:

• Enterprises without cloud computing expertise lose more than $258 million annually, according to a Rackspace and London School of Economics and Political Science report. Around 65% of IT pros said the cloud skills gap is hurting innovation and creativity.

• Close to half of IT respondents who have deployed the cloud reported a return on investment, and an extra 40% expected future ROI. But around half of decision makers spent more time on cloud operations than expected and found a lack of expertise holding them back. Of the respondents, 84% said an improvement in cloud expertise would improve ROI.

• Four in 10 respondents said a lack of skills is a barrier to adopting cloud platforms. Close to half said cloud security, migration project management and native cloud app development are hard roles to fill, and barriers to recruitment, such as not high enough salaries and a lack of training for prospective hires, further complicate the process.

Dive Insight:

The tech skills shortage is no new problem, and the majority of professionals recognize the need for more workforce investment, especially in challenging fields such as the cloud, IoT and cybersecurity.

Around 40% of enterprises who have not migrated to the cloud yet plan on doing so in the next three years, and over one-third are predicted to have transactional systems records on the platform by 2020. As these companies move to the cloud, the demand for workers with cloud expertise is rising outside of traditional tech companies and cloud providers.

Many advanced tech positions — like working on the cloud — require such a large skills set that finding suitable employees is a struggle. If a company offers enough compensation and benefits to attract a potential hire away from competitors, it can still take weeks or even months to integrate them into their new role.