UK organisations lose millions a year due to lack of cloud technology skills

Research from Rackspace suggests that 64 per cent of UK IT decision makers are losing out on revenue in their organisations as it doesn’t have the required cloud expertise.

The research, collaborating with the London School of Economics, found that this lack of expertise is stifling creativity, with 67 per cent of IT professionals saying they could bring better innovation to their organisations with the right cloud knowledge.

The report looks at the wider implications of the cloud skills gap and provides a route for businesses to tackle the realities of modern IT. Around 950 IT decision makers in large enterprises globally, the study revealed current and future trends of cloud expertise.

Lee James, chief technology officer at Rackspace EMEA, commented: “While the rise of AI and automation may cause some to think that human insight is less important, our report shows that this is not the case.

“With the cloud now underpinning business transformation, the growing technology skills gap means organisations must have a strategy to access the expertise needed. Those that don’t will struggle to be competitive and innovative.”

IT decision makers are finding out the benefits of moving all or some of their IT estate to the cloud; 42 per cent of respondents said their organisation had seen a positive return on investment (ROI) on using the cloud, with a further 44 per cent expecting the cloud to deliver it.

Will Venters, assistant professor of information systems at LSE, said: “Put simply, cloud technology is a victim of its own success. As the technology has become ubiquitous among large organisations, it has also opened up a huge number of development and innovation opportunities.

“However, to fully realise these opportunities, organisations need to not only have the right expertise in place now, but also have a cloud skills development strategy to ensure they are constantly evolving their IT workforce and training procedures in parallel with the constantly evolving demands of cloud.

“Failure to do so will severely impede the future aspirations of businesses in an increasingly competitive digital market.”