According to a recent market report by IDC, the responsibilities and tasks of IT professionals have changed dramatically over the past decade due to the convergence of modern development technologies, cloud platforms and as-a-service offerings which greatly enhance overall productivity.



Many experts now work in hybrid jobs that combine traditional development tasks with those that were once the responsibility of operations specialists. The IDC report offers a comprehensive census and projection for these new hybrid roles as well as conventional IT operations positions.

Al Gillen, Group Vice President, Software Development and Open Source at IDC, said "The census data demonstrates that the makeup of the IT workforce is undergoing a major, once-in-a-generation transformation...Today's IT teams supporting this contemporary deployment model are going through similar transitions due to the increased adoption of cloud computing."

IDC defined the various roles analyzed in the report, including DataOps, DevOps and DevSecOps, ITOps, MLOps, platform engineering and Site Reliability Engineers (SRE). Each role has its own set of responsibilities and specialized skills.

DataOps combines integrated and process-oriented viewpoints on data with automation and agile software engineering approaches to ensure a consistent and continuous supply of data value. DevOps employs collaborative, agile methodologies together with comprehensive automated development pipelines and testing, infrastructure setup, provisioning, security controls, and life-cycle continuous integration (CI) for continuous development and delivery. DevSecOps prioritizes security at the start of the DevOps delivery pipeline and allows DevOps teams to work alongside security to execute essential security policies.

ITOps involves regular planned duties and unscheduled support operations connected to IT systems using technology and procedures. MLOps simplifies and automates the entire machine learning (ML) life cycle, applying DevOps methodologies' guiding principles to ML operations. Platform engineering is a field that focuses on managing and enhancing the software delivery process to deploy applications and services to cloud platforms. SRE teams create scripts to automate IT operations duties like maintenance and support to improve efficiency and reliability. Systems administrators use various tools and techniques suitable for the system or systems of systems in use to set up, administer and support computer systems and systems of systems.

Cloud computing has had a significant impact on today's IT teams, revolutionizing the way organizations manage their infrastructure, applications, and data. Here are some key points about its impact:

1. Infrastructure Management: Cloud computing allows IT teams to shift from managing on-premises hardware to utilizing cloud service providers (CSPs) for infrastructure needs. This reduces the burden of hardware procurement, maintenance, and upgrades, freeing up IT teams to focus on more strategic initiatives.

2. Scalability and Flexibility: Cloud computing offers the ability to scale infrastructure and resources quickly and dynamically based on business needs. IT teams can easily provision or de-provision resources as required, allowing for increased flexibility and agility in responding to changing demands.

3. Cost Optimization: Cloud computing moves the capital expense (CapEx) model to an operational expense (OpEx) model, eliminating the need for upfront hardware investments. IT teams can optimize costs by paying only for the resources they consume, avoiding overprovisioning or underutilization of infrastructure.

4. Increased Focus on Innovation: Cloud computing offloads mundane operational tasks such as hardware provisioning and maintenance to CSPs, enabling IT teams to concentrate on delivering value-added services and driving innovation within the organization.

5. Improved Collaboration: Cloud-based collaboration tools facilitate seamless communication and collaboration among IT teams, regardless of geographical locations. This enables faster decision-making, knowledge sharing, and problem-solving across the organization.

6. Enhanced Security and Disaster Recovery: Cloud service providers typically have robust security measures in place to protect their infrastructure and customer data. This reduces the burden on IT teams to manage and secure on-premises systems. Cloud providers also offer built-in disaster recovery capabilities, ensuring business continuity in case of outages or disruptions.

7. Skill Set Evolution: As organizations adopt cloud technologies, IT teams must acquire new skills and expertise to effectively manage cloud-based infrastructures. This includes learning about different cloud service models, security best practices, and automation tools. The skill set evolution aligns IT professionals with the evolving needs of the industry.

8. Increased Speed and Agility: Cloud computing allows IT teams to rapidly provision resources, spin up new environments, and deploy applications. This speed and agility enable faster time-to-market for new products and services, enabling organizations to stay competitive in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.

9. Improved Accessibility: Cloud computing enables remote access to resources, applications, and data from anywhere with an internet connection. This has become especially crucial in today's remote work environment, allowing IT teams to work seamlessly and collaborate effectively regardless of physical location.

10. DevOps and Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD): Cloud computing aligns well with DevOps practices by providing the infrastructure and automation tools necessary for continuous integration, delivery, and deployment of software. IT teams can leverage cloud-based services for code repositories, build and test environments, and automated deployment pipelines, streamlining the development lifecycle.

11. Data Analytics and AI: Cloud computing provides scalable and cost-effective platforms for running data analytics workloads and deploying AI and machine learning models. IT teams can leverage these capabilities to derive valuable insights from large volumes of data and drive data-driven decision-making within their organizations.

12. Vendor Management: Cloud computing introduces the need for IT teams to manage relationships with cloud service providers. This includes understanding the terms of service, negotiating contracts, monitoring service level agreements (SLAs), and ensuring compliance with security and regulatory requirements.

13. Training and Skill Development: Cloud computing requires IT teams to acquire new skills and knowledge to effectively utilize cloud technologies. Training programs and certifications offered by cloud service providers and third-party organizations play a crucial role in keeping IT professionals up to date with advancements in cloud computing.

It is important to note that the impact of cloud computing on IT teams may vary depending on the organization's size, industry, and specific goals. However, overall, cloud computing has fundamentally transformed how IT teams operate, enabling them to be more strategic, agile, and innovative in supporting their organizations' digital transformation journey.