IDC White Paper Overview: Cloud Skills Gap for IT
December 2012
IDC White Paper Summary
Microsoft Corp. has commissioned an IDC White Paper titled Climate Change: Cloud’s Impact on IT
Organizations and Staffing (November 2012), which reveals a profound lack of qualified workers to fill the
forecasted large number of cloud-computing-based jobs over the next several years.
In fact, cloud-related skills represent virtually all the growth opportunities in IT employment worldwide, and
demand for cloud-related positions will grow by 26 percent annually through 2015, with as many as 7 million
cloud-related jobs available worldwide. However, IT hiring managers report that the biggest reason they
failed to fill an existing 1.7 million open cloud positions in 2012 is because job seekers lack the training and
certification needed to work in a cloud-enabled world.
With the workforce unprepared to take on cloud jobs, there is an urgent need to retrain existing IT professionals
and encourage students to pursue cloud-related IT trainings and certifications, according to the IDC White
Paper. In anticipation of the technology evolution to the cloud, Microsoft recently announced that it has
reinvented certifications specifically for the cloud, including the forthcoming certifications in Windows 8, which
have cloud-computing focus areas.
Solving the Cloud Skills Gap
In addition, programs such as Microsoft IT Academy, a program that provides middle school, high school and
college students with the technology-based skills needed for successful careers in tomorrow’s IT cloud
environment, and Microsoft Virtual Academy, a program for IT professionals to gain access to free, self-paced
training resources that use a combination of video and text, are poised to educate the next generation of IT
workers employed in cloud computing.
Regional Breakdown
In all regions across the globe, lack of training, certification or experience are the top three reasons why cloud
positions aren’t filled.
United States and Canada

In the United States, the IT sector is experiencing a modest growth in IT jobs in general, with the average
growth in IT employment between 1.1 and 2.7 percent per year through 2020, according to the U.S. Bureau
of Labor Statistics. However, amid modest growth of IT jobs, cloud sector jobs are increasing swiftly.

Although the growth of IT jobs in the United States is slow, the growth picture is better outside the U.S. The
overall number of IT positions in end-user organizations globally will grow at a 4.3 percent compound annual
growth rate between 2011 and 2015 and reach 29.3 million in 2015, according to IDC.

According to IDC’s regional forecasts, the United States accounted for 62 percent of worldwide spending for
public IT cloud services last year, compared with 35 percent of worldwide IT spending in general.

Canada will be a much slower adopter of public IT cloud services but a more aggressive adopter of private IT
cloud services. Due to Canada’s smaller job base, though, cloud-generated jobs will grow 30 percent faster
in Canada than in the United States.
.
EMEA and Emerging Markets

The emerging markets of Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Asia Pacific will be
home to 40 percent of new cloud-related jobs.
o
These markets are predicted to grow at 34 percent annually until 2015.

Last year, EMEA’s spending on public IT cloud services was approximately 40 percent of North America’s.
However, its investment in private cloud was equal to or more than that of North America, illustrating an
aggressiveness in moving to private clouds, as compared with other regions.

In EMEA, IDC forecasts that cloud-related IT jobs will grow by 24 percent per year to about 1.4 million by
2015.
Asia Pacific

Asia Pacific will adopt private IT cloud services more aggressively than either EMEA or North America, given
several factors, including the immense IT workforce in the region.

Cloud-related IT jobs will grow at 32 percent per year to more than 2.3 million in Asia Pacific by the end of
2015.
Full results of the research, including additional details on global findings and survey methodology, can be found
at [insert URL here].
For more information, press only:
Rapid Response Team, Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, (503) 443-7070, rrt@waggeneredstrom.com