Evolution of Cloud Security Hindered by IT Skills Shortage: Survey

There is a need for the corporate world to invest in expanding the IT talent pool rather than outsource the cloud security task altogether, according to a survey by cloud security vendor SkyHigh Networks.
In the survey, more than 38% of respondents suggested providing training for existing IT security workers, while some respondents, mostly IT executives and mid-level managers, favored the idea of increasing the hiring of junior IT professionals.
Interestingly, less than 5% of respondents appeared to believe that outsourcing is the solution to deal with the security challenges posed by cloud computing. “Everyone agreed that offshoring IT security work overseas is not viewed as an effective solution,” says the report.
When asked which IT skills are needed in this age of cloud and mobility, 80.4% of IT professionals responded that managing an incident response would be somewhat more important or much more important in the next five years.
Another 74.7% of respondents said experience with very large datasets would increase in importance while 66.4% said that communication with non-IT departments and executives would grow in importance.
While many IT executives believe that hiring collegiate majors and providing in-house training help overcome the skill shortage, some executives said training programs would take years to ease the crisis.
“With a shortage of skilled IT professionals presenting the greatest barrier to protecting data, it is critical that IT professionals focus on the skills that will enable them and their organizations to be successful,” the report added.
Some IT executives even expect their IT workers to write code and negotiate with vendors and partners on their way to improve security around cloud. Survey respondents were professionals working in IT or IT security around the globe.
Amazon’s AWS platform has continued to be the leader in the cloud services market, but the report says Microsoft Azure is closing the gap quickly.