Earn More Money Working with Cloud Computing

Cloud Computing continues growing and so are skilled tech salaries.

What is cloud computing?

For the last few years, cloud computing has dominated the IT landscape. The term “cloud computing” is a misnomer in that neither the data you store or access is virtual. It’s all controlled from large server farms in key locations worldwide. Still, indie developers, service providers, companies and organizations of all sizes continue to move to the cloud – and make lots of money in the process. So, what exactly is cloud computing, and how can you boost your career prospects and income in this exciting new world?

Dictionary.com defines it as “Internet-based computing in which large groups of remote servers are networked so as to allow sharing of data-processing tasks, centralized data storage, and online access to computer services or resources.” In the simplest terms, it means you’re able to store and access your data and programs over the internet, instead of your computer’s hard drive. For instance, when you travel and take photos and want to share them with friends, cloud technology makes it possible. You’d simply upload the entire album to an online storage provider and then share the URL for that repository. Data that may have previously taken weeks to process and share is now available in seconds.

As a result, the cloud has garnered a lot of attention from traditional IT companies, educational institutions, and investors. Cloud Academy’s Job Opportunities in the Cloud Infographic 2016, summarizes key statistics regarding the current employment landscape, along with a glimpse into the future.

Who’s leading the pack? According to Gartner’s 2015 Magic Quadrant report, Amazon Web Services has the largest share of the market, followed by Microsoft’s Azure, Google Cloud Platform with VMWare’s vCloud and the Rackspace Public Cloud rounding up the top five.

Cloud computing by the numbers

What are other key facts that our infographic covers around job opportunities? A survey from the New Jersey Institute of Technology found that approximately 42% of the companies in the US and UK are actively seeking skilled cloud professionals and 43% of them are saying they experience trouble finding skilled candidates for their open positions.

Whether you’re currently working in tech, or thinking of making a career move, there are a lot of open positions for those interested in cloud computing. Some of that confusion is undoubtedly due to many companies inability to quickly identify top tier candidates. If everyone appears equal, how do you separate yourself from the crowd?

A recent Forbes article by Louis Columbus stated that the cloud computing market is growing at a compound annual growth rate of 22.8% and will reach $127.5B by 2018. Cloud computing has exploded and cloud services were already estimated to be growing at five times the growth rate of traditional IT back in 2010!  Cloud services aren’t limited to the enterprises. An estimated 64% of small to medium-sized businesses use cloud-based applications, with 78% of businesses indicating that they plan on buying new cloud-based solutions in the next few years.

It’s common for startup companies to develop their applications, build their infrastructure, and manage security concerns in the cloud. What used to be viewed as time-intensive and costly is now an opportunity to add high-end computing power and storage in less time — at a fraction of the cost.

Companies such as, online social gaming site, Zynga are taking advantage of hybrid cloud solutions because it makes business sense. Cloud computing dramatically reduces electricity costs, in-house hardware costs, and IT administrator fees.

Numbers alone prove cloud computing earned its rank as essential parts of an organization’s IT infrastructure. Accordingly, we can expect to see demand for certified IT professionals continue growing.

Make it Rain, or “How much money can you actually make?”

The top three most frequently asked questions concerning cloud computing are usually about where the jobs are located, which professions make the most money, and which certifications actually help you land your dream job.

While there are many differing opinions, StackOverflow’s annual developer survey helps answers these questions. Which industries and countries are looking for cloud professionals?

Let’s dig into some numbers. The top countries with the most developer/engineering jobs are not surprising: the U.S., India, and the U.K.

According to StackOverflow, while only 15% of developer respondents were actively looking for a job, more than 78% of them are interested in hearing about new job opportunities. 

If you’re a business, you might need a smarter approach recruiting new employees, because the largest pool of potential candidates isn’t “actively” searching for new roles. Placing a “job ad” isn’t a high-return method for finding candidates you want. Job seekers should be aware that companies may not know they need someone with your skills until the need is acute.

The current employment climate calls for a proactive approach, where a little networking with recruiters (even if no positions are listed) may be worth the energy in the short and long term.

Another interesting data point from the StackOverflow survey points out that the average developer has about 6.5 years of IT or programming experience. The average student only has approximately 3.4 years experience.

Professional experience doesn’t always come from a current job. Developers are creative and often gain experience by building projects in their own time for no pay. Another way IT people learn on the job is by taking online courses and hands-on labs. Digital learning affords technical people the opportunity of gaining the valuable experience necessary for taking positive career steps.

What do cloud job titles really mean?

I’d like to explain the most typical technical cloud-related roles:

• Full-Stack Web Developers
• Back-End Web Developers
• Mobile Developers
• Desktop Developers
• Front-End Web Developers

Respondents of the StackOverflow survey who self-identified as full-stack developers earned the most.

Developers who identified themselves as “Full-Stack Developers” were proficient in coding with five to six major languages or frameworks. Other developer positions typically mastered only four languages.

The term full-stack applies to developers who are comfortable working with both Back-End and Front-End technologies. These developers work with databases, PHP, HTML, CSS, JavaScript and everything in-between with equal ease (not an easy stack of skills to master).

While individuals may start as Front-End or Back-End Web Developers, through online training and classes, they can progress into a Full-Stack Developer — which is arguably the most requested and highest paying job role in cloud computing.  Just how much more money these skilled Full-Stack people earn may surprise you.

Glassdoor released their 25 Highest Paying Jobs in America for 2016 report which looks at the top paying jobs in America. It determines this by reviewing compares with the highest number of job postings currently listed on their websites to produce a list of the most desirable jobs by vacancy and salary.

Where do developer jobs rank on this list? No surprise that multiple jobs requiring technical proficiency (and benefit from certification) are in the top 10 on this list. However, it is difficult to determine whether the jobs listed on Glassdoor match the job roles on StackOverflow. Often developer titles are arbitrary without relation to the technology being used.

We’ve put together a quick graph so you may determine for yourself which of the top paying jobs match those highly requested job postings.

Job Title	Median Base Salary	# of Job Openings	Otherwise Known As
Software Development Manager	$132,000	3,495	Full-Stack, Front-End or Back-End Developer
Software Architect	$128,250	655	Full-Stack, Front-End or Back-End Developer
IT Manager	$120,000	3,152	No secret, your friendly neighborhood spider…err IT guy is now the manager.
Solutions Architect	$120,000	2,838	Typically a cross between a Front-End or Back-End Developer and a PM
Applications Developer	$120,000	263	Web or Mobile Developer
Systems Architect	$116,920	439	Full-Stack, Front-End or Back-End Developer
Data Scientist	$115,000	1,985	A developer with a strong background in Machine Learning…which, we have a course for if you’re interested. :)
Data Architect	$113,000	762	Front-End or Back-End Developer
Information Systems Manager	$106,000	147	Another title for an IT Manager

So why the disparity in salaries between jobs that are nearly identical? There are a few reasons explaining this. Location matters, and the closer you are to Silicon Valley, the larger your salary. While cities such as New York, Seattle, and London are vying as the next “Silicon Valley,” they’ve yet to pull together the trifecta of talent, resources and money that SV provides. So while a Full-Stack Developer may make upwards of $160k, the actual range is somewhere more along the lines of $120k – $160k, give or take, depending on your location.

Industry is another factor. A developer working for an enterprise technology company like Google will make more than a developer working for a Healthcare company. Healthcare, Financial institutions, and Entertainment pay less, on average, than high technology companies such as AWS, Microsoft, Google, and Apple.

The Glassdoor survey show that nine of the top twenty-five highest paying jobs in America are tied directly to technology. Those skilled and highly compensated employees undoubtedly benefit from cloud computing and certifications.

Take a look at Glassdoor’s most recent report, 25 Highest Paying Companies in America for 2016, and you’ll notice immediately that Google, VM Ware, and Amazon’s Lab126 are well in the top ten. Rounding out the top twenty five are Facebook, SAP, Synopsys, LinkedIn, Cloudera, Salesforce and you can guess the others. Nearly every company represented in Glassdoor’s survey list directly employs developers who possess cloud computing skills. These top companies want more of the same and are actively searching for additional skilled cloud-oriented professionals.