By now, you have probably started to see the practical benefits of cloud computing for your business: it increases mobility, saves you money, allows for fast data recovery, etc. Some experts are extending the benefits of cloud computing beyond the walls of your business by suggesting that cloud computing can help create jobs. You may be thinking to yourself that cloud computing would eliminate jobs because it drastically decreases the need for an in-house IT provider, or even removes the need altogether. There are, however, some fascinating predictions being made about the future of the job market and how it will be influenced by cloud computing.
Let’s first go on the record by saying cloud computing is not going to single-handedly change the job market. But it can definitely help. One Forbes article does a good job of illustrating this. Worldwide, there are more than 3 billion people who are employed. An IDC study commissioned by Microsoft predicts that the number of jobs created by cloud computing will be somewhere in the vicinity of 14 million by the year 2015, which represents only ½% of the global workforce. Of those 14 million jobs, “only” 1.17 million will be represented in America. While that doesn’t sound like much on a global scale, it’s a start, a start that those 1.17 million people are sure to be thankful for.
Of course, the field seeing the biggest growth in terms of job numbers is the IT industry. Since the demand for cloud services is increasing drastically, it makes sense that the need for IT experts to implement and maintain cloud technology will grow as well. According to a study from the Sand Hill Group, companies selling cloud services have the potential to create 472,000 jobs in the U.S. and abroad over the next five years.
While the biggest percentage of jobs created is sure to be seen in the IT industry, the cloud is also likely to create jobs in other industries ranging from healthcare to education to sales (although some industries will see much more growth than others). How, you might ask. One way that cloud computing helps create jobs is that it saves the company money; when a business migrates its data to the cloud, it no longer has to worry about expensive servers, renewing software licenses or other costly technology expenses. Instead, it can focus on other areas, such as hiring new employees; while not all companies will surely hire new employees at the first sign of cost reductions, it’s safe to assume that most will at least consider it some time down the road. Another way that cloud computing will help the future job market, according to the IDC study we previously mentioned, is through IT innovation. Improvements and advancements in technology lead to business innovation, which increases revenue. Increased revenue usually means an increased demand, which, in turn, leads to a need for more employees. Additionally, people are no longer limited by geographical location. Since the cloud allows an employee to access a company’s data infrastructure applications from anywhere, a company (if they so choose) can hire a promising candidate from a totally different area and not have to pay for relocation or be confined to hiring locals.
At IronOrbit, we focus on providing our customers with customizable cloud solutions. We understand that the cloud has the potential to revolutionize the way companies conduct business, so we offer several tools that help in that process: managed servers, virtualized desktops and hosted applications, just to name a few. All of these solutions allow you to forget about the intricacies of running your company’s technology and focus on growing your business.