Career Switch to Cloud Computing
We can provide at quite a high level tailored courses based on the interests of students that could lead up to studying for certifications such as Cisco CCNA Networking Associate, Cisco DevNet Associate, Microsoft foundational Azure certification, Amazon AWS foundational certification, SQL Server qualifications, LPIC 1 and LPIC2 qualifications, Microsoft Certification MCSE in Data Management and Analytics.
Over the last decade cloud computing has developed very fast with a whole ecosystem of "Something as a Service" such as the following widely known aaS offerings:
- SaaS - Software as a Service
- PaaS - Platform as a Service
- DaaS - Data as a Service
- NaaS - Network as a Service
Cloud computing architectures require not only access to considerable Computer Hardware and Computer Network resources, but, also, Virtualisation and Containerisation technologies such as VmWare and Docker, and sophisticated distributed software frameworks. An early and very successful provider of cloud computing services was Amazon with its AWS offering. Microsoft's Azure cloud computing platform appeared some years later. An important open source cloud computing platform is OpenStack, developed at NASA.
Other large multinationals such as Google, CISCO and IBM have also entered this arena. There are plenty of career opportunities in this rapidly expanding sector and it is possible to get started without a degree in Maths or Computer Science.
Traditional IT skills are still needed in the cloud. A very high percentage of the machines deployed in the cloud are Linux based. Hence Linux skills such as Linux/Unix command line tools and utilities, Linux system administration and Bash programming are needed, probably, more than ever. Databases running in the cloud require database administrators, database programmers (SQL skills are as vital as ever). This includes both open source databases such as MariaDB and PostgreSQL, and proprietary databases such as Oracle and Microsoft's SQL Server.
Network system administration skills are also in great demand, and so the new unified CISCO CCNA certification is well worth considering as large cloud infrastructures depend critically on well configured networks of switches and routers. Additionally, networking technology now includes virtualised networks and software defined networks (SDNs).
The setting up and control of large cloud infrastructures is ushering in a new era of automation, where automation scripts are developed in shell scripting languages such as Bash, or Microsoft's Powershell, or in a programming language such as Python. CISCO's DevNet technology is an example of their approach to network systems automation. The CISCO DevNet associate certification is one of the new family of network automation qualification certifications, and embraces mastery of Linux command line tools and utilities, Bash shell programming, Powershell programming and Python programming together with mastery of basic networking technologies, security and automation technologies.
One of the other key areas associated with cloud computing is the collection, processing and analysis of very large quantities of data coupled with the use of Machine Learning techniques to explore and mine that data.