IT professionals optimistic over cloud future

Cloud computing may not lead to the jobs blood-bath that many in the IT industry are predicting. Forty percent of computing professionals think that the advent of cloud technology will lead to more IT opportunities, not fewer.

That's according to the IT professionals surveyed by job site CWJobs, who demonstrated a fair degree of optimism for the future. Only 28 percent of professionals thought that cloud computing would mean fewer jobs. And there's certainly an imperative to learn more about cloud computing, according to the survey, 70 percent of IT professionals thought that cloud skills would make them more employable.

Younger IT professionals are particularly optimistic for the future, 65 percent of those in their early 20s thought that the advent of cloud computing would lead to more jobs, while only 28 percent of those in their 40s agreed. CWJobs surveyed 1,300 IT professionals about their prospects under cloud.

Richard Nott, website director of CWJobs said that it was encouraging that IT professionals recognised the career opportunities emerging from the rise of cloud computing. "While it is not yet clear which specific skills will be useful for cloud computing, the majority of IT professionals do believe there will be a need to adapt to capitalise on the changing IT landscape and that now is the time to do this," he said.