12 Cloud Skills Gaps AWS Managed Services Providers (MSP) Solve for Businesses

Confronting Cloud Skills Gaps

It's a well-known fact that cloud adoption and growth is happening across all industries at a record pace as the demand for cloud services has surged to better support a remote workforce, increase business agility, foster innovation, and save on costs and resources.

However, implementing cloud technology is often a complex and challenging endeavor due to the lack of expertise and skills required to operate and manage a cloud environment effectively. In fact, 86% of organizations experience deficiencies in skills associated with adopting and managing their cloud environment (451 Research).

According to a recent survey by 451 Research, enterprises lacked the following 12 necessary cloud skills when implementing a cloud environment.

1. Cloud platform expertise
2. Information security
3. Machine learning/artificial intelligence
4. Data science/data analytics
5. Cloud-native functions/tools
6. IT integration and orchestration
7. Business intelligence/data visualization
8. Data compliance/governance
9. Application development
10. Internet of Things (IoT)
11. Open source/community code expertise
12. Third-party service provider management
    

There are several ways to address these gaps in cloud skills. One solution is to train existing personnel, while another is to hire new talent. Unfortunately, training personnel takes a significant amount of time and resources, and hiring new talent has been a challenge ever since the cloud's inception in 2015. The Wall Street Journal reports that between 2017 and 2020, the annual posting of cloud jobs increased over 90%, and the fierce competition to hire and retain qualified talent has shut out many businesses from moving to the cloud.  

Instead, let an AWS MSP address these cloud skills gaps and remove the operational burden of modernizing, managing, and securing your AWS cloud environment. In turn, you get to focus your attention and resources on running and growing your business. By working with a next-generation AWS MSP, you can leverage the cloud as a strategic business transformation tool that provides technical advantages and paves the way for business innovation and growth.

Profiling a Capable & Reliable AWS MSP

‍So how do you know if an AWS MSP is credible and has the right skill sets to close the gaps in expertise and skills commonly associated with implementing an AWS cloud environment?

Just as you start the hiring process of an employee by looking at their resume, you first want to perform a search or look up the AWS MSP that you want to hire via the AWS Managed Service Provider Network. Within an AWS MSP's profile, you want to pay close attention to the following areas when evaluating their capabilities and reliability.

Experience

‍A great way to quickly gauge the experience level of an AWS MSP is by looking at their partner tier. There are three tiers (Select, Advanced, and Premier) in the AWS Partner Network (APN). The AWS Select Tier has the lowest experience requirements, and the AWS Premier Tier has the highest experience requirements. In other words, AWS MSPs that are AWS Premier Partners have the highest level of AWS vetted experience.

Qualifications & Skills

‍The AWS Validated Qualifications and Practices summarizes an AWS MSP's qualifications and capabilities. The listed AWS competencies, certifications, partner programs, and service validations in this section address specific skills deficiencies. The high qualifications and experience standards needed to earn these AWS competencies and certifications make it an effective way to evaluate a particular AWS MSPs ability to fill in cloud skills gaps and serve your cloud needs.

Credibility & References

‍Next, check out the case studies and customer references sections to get a good sense of an AWS MSPs credibility, service use cases, and level of customer satisfaction. A lack of entries in either of these sections should be an area of concern. On the other hand, AWS MSPs that have a successful track record in delivering quality services over a wide range of use cases will have a decent number of entries in both categories for you to assess.

Other Considerations & Next Steps

Before diving headfirst into your search for a suitable AWS MSP, you need to understand your specific business needs and objectives. Having a clear understanding of your particular business requirements and goals ensures that you evaluate an AWS MSP against your list of skills gaps and cloud service needs versus comparing them against one another. 

Additionally, avoid relying solely on an APN profile to evaluate your AWS MSP of choice. Take a moment to have an actual conversation with the provider about your business objectives and what you are looking to achieve with AWS. Take this opportunity to learn more about the provider and see how well they understand your pain points and business goals. You should also check if they report a strong net promoter score (NPS) and customer satisfaction score (CSAT). Both are customer experience metrics that measure customer satisfaction and can help you understand what kind of service you are likely to receive. 

As a next-generation AWS MSP and AWS Premier Partner with a strong track record of successful AWS launches and high customer satisfaction, Mission has the experience and expertise to effectively migrate, optimize, manage, and secure your AWS cloud environment. Contact us today to see how Mission stacks up to your cloud skills gaps and service needs.