What Companies Hire Cloud Engineers and Cloud Architects?

Across markets, organizations continue to redefine their strategies for better product development, customer experience, and cost effectiveness. The cloud continues to be the medium where all these transformation strategies converge.

Today, more and more organizations offer job opportunities for cloud networking architects and engineers. In this article, we’ll discuss the various employment opportunities available for cloud architects and engineers and why companies continue to hire for these positions.

Why are Companies Hiring Cloud Engineers and Cloud Architects?

Cloud service providers (CSP), hosting companies, software-as-a-service (SaaS) providers, and infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) providers all need cloud engineers and architects.

These companies hire cloud professionals to help create next-generation cloud computing services, cost-effective hosting models, and new application offerings embedded with a hosted cloud offering.

But it’s not just the technology industry that’s hiring cloud engineers and architects. The Federal Government and many healthcare companies are also employing cloud professionals.

Cloud Service Providers (CSP)

Cloud providers, including AT&T, Alibaba, Google Cloud, Cox Communications, Comcast, Orange (France), and British Telecom, represent a small sampling of the largest cloud service providers (CSP) globally. CSPs often become the local or regional telephone signal provider, high-speed internet provider, or high-definition television provider. Delivering consistent high-speed internet capable of 5G wireless or better is challenging for many CSPs.

The largest CSPs globally recruit qualified cloud engineers and architects to help create these internet services, including 5G wireless. Many cloud service models run off the same network for enterprises and consumers. Cloud engineers and architects collaborate by creating cloud computing strategies for delivering services, while ensuring the services’ resilience, security, and availability.

Application Hosting Providers

Cloud-native application hosting providers like Salesforce.com, Oracle, SAP, and Microsoft, need cloud engineers and architects to help scale their service offerings globally.

Microsoft Office 365, as an example, has over 100 million customers globally accessing several data centers hosting Microsoft Office and OneDrive. Microsoft also uses its cloud computing platforms for Microsoft Gaming console applications.

Engineers and architects are needed to ensure optimal delivery of these applications while maintaining the highest level of data protection. Many clients trust application hosting providers with their essential business operations, internet-facing applications, and internal business applications.

Infrastructure as a Service Providers (IaaS)

IaaS providers, including Amazon (AWS), Salesforce.com, Google, Oracle, Blue Ocean, and Microsoft, architect and deploy global cloud infrastructures to host clients’ virtual instances, in-house applications, and data. IaaS providers hire cloud engineers and architects to ensure their global infrastructure platforms meet their client’s needs.

Many IaaS providers specialize in hosting their applications while extending API to their clients. Clients can use the open API to access hosted applications and connect them to their systems in another location or within the IaaS Cloud. The IaaS provider will hire cloud engineers with extensive knowledge in API integration to assist their sales teams in selling, pricing, and onboarding new clients using their services.

Cloud solutions architects provide a valuable service within the IaaS providers by designing solutions that meet and exceed client expectations, while ensuring the cost model, profitability, and revenue expectations are competitive and achievable. Many IaaS providers offer low-cost cloud options; however, with no profit or steady revenue, these providers often fold under or get acquired.

The Federal Government

The United States Federal Government slowly, over the last few years, has moved its on premise workloads into various secure cloud environments. Many federal government agencies look for cloud providers that hold FedRAMP certifications across all components of cloud computing. FedRAMP mandates strict compliance for cloud products and services regarding their authorization, security assessment, and continuous monitoring approach to their respective offerings.

Federal agencies moving their workloads to cloud environments will hire cloud engineers and architects or outsource this work to an IaaS or cloud computing provider that holds a FedRAMP certification. Often times, federal agencies will look for cloud engineers and architects that possess secret or top secret clearances.

Healthcare Providers

Healthcare providers, like Kaiser Permanente, United Healthcare, and Molina Healthcare, offer several patient-facing applications for insurance billing, access to medical information, communications with healthcare staff. These applications are primarily hosted in the cloud through third-party application providers.

Many third-party providers, including Oracle-Cerner, AllScripts, and McKesson, host the client healthcare-facing applications in the cloud. Both the consumer of the applications (including major hospitals, clinics, and outpatient treatment centers) and the healthcare application providers recruit cloud engineers and architects.

In the healthcare industry, cloud engineers and architects play a critical role in security. Hackers target healthcare data, including lab results, patient electronic medical records, and insurance billing information, because this information can be worth a lot on the dark web. Cloud engineers and architects need a solid cybersecurity and compliance background to design, deploy, and maintain secure healthcare applications.

All healthcare providers are mandated by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) to protect patients’ personal information (PII). If third-party application providers or healthcare providers fail to create a secure environment for patient information, they could incur serious fines and lose customers.

Knowledge for Today and in the Future

Career opportunities for cloud engineers and architects will continue to grow. Virtually every organization needs a cloud engineer to deploy and maintain cloud applications and virtual instances. Organizations also need a well-qualified and experienced cloud architect to help design the right platform to host their services.

CIAT’s cloud bachelor’s degree program and cloud administration certificate program help future cloud engineers and industry-experienced IT professionals develop the foundational knowledge necessary for launching or advancing a successful cloud career.

Book an appointment today with one of CIAT’s Admissions Advisors to discuss the pathways you can take to achieve your educational and career goals.