As we move into 2023, the demand for cloud computing professionals continues to rise as businesses increasingly rely on cloud technology for their operations.

Cloud coaching is becoming increasingly important for companies that want to stay competitive in the digital age.

In this post we will explore the pros and cons of building or hiring cloud talent for your organization.

In this blog post, we'll talk about cloud coaching as a valuable tool for professionals working in cloud computing.

To become a Google Certified Associate Cloud Engineer, a candidate should be able to demonstrate the following skills:

• Understand and use core GCP services and tools.
• Design and develop cloud-based solutions using GCP.
• Deploy and manage applications on GCP.
• Maintain and monitor cloud-based solutions.
• Manage and analyze data on GCP.
• Understand and use GCP networking, security, and compliance features.
• Understand and use API's to manage GCP resources.
• Understand the economic and financial aspects of GCP.

The exam covers a wide range of topics, including Google Cloud Platform fundamentals, application development, application deployment and management, and data management and analysis. To prepare for the exam, you can study the official exam guide and take online courses or practice exams. You may also want to gain practical experience by working with Google Cloud Platform on a personal project or through your job.

In a two-part crash course, we covered a variety of topics, including cloud storage in GCP. Here are a few questions we answered.

When you’re looking for the right person to fill an IT role at your company, it can be extremely challenging to find candidates who legitimately have all the skills needed. For example, you might get applications from people who say they’re proficient in Kubernetes, but they may only have a basic understanding and be unable to manage a complex deployment.

So how do you accurately narrow down your applicant pool of IT professionals to legitimately qualified professionals to avoid wasting the time of job candidates and yourself?

With a solid pre-screening process you can create a short list of exceptional potential hires.

Benefits of a Strong Candidate Screening Process

Before your hiring team sits down with IT job candidates, send out a prescreening questionnaire to determine whether a person is right for the role.

When crafted strategically, a candidate screening process can lead to decreased recruitment costs, a selection of better-qualified candidates, and a faster hiring process. While you may experience a decrease in the volume of potential hires, the quality of your candidates will increase exponentially.

For many IT professionals, the thought of asking their boss to pay for training and certification is daunting. After all, you don't want to seem like you're not already competent in your role. But the truth is—IT training and cloud certification can deliver a positive return on investment (ROI) not only for you, but also for your company.

Many employers are willing to invest in their employees' professional development, but they may not know the benefits of IT training and certification. That's where you come in. By making a solid case for why IT training and certification are beneficial for both you and your employer, you're more likely to get your boss on board to cover the costs.

4 Steps to Build a Case for Employer-Sponsored Cloud Training

#1 Align Your Request With the Company's Goals

When asking your boss to invest in your professional development, it's essential to align your request with the company's goals. For example, if your company is looking to containerize more applications, you could request training and certification for Kubernetes and other container development and management training. By doing so, you're not only furthering your own professional development but also helping the company reach its goals.

Also, explain that technology is advancing so quickly that you need training to keep your skills fresh so you can do your best work. Often, employers are willing to invest in employees who they see as being future leaders within the organization.

It’s no secret the IT industry is facing a skills shortage—especially cloud skills. As companies scrambled to move to the cloud in the pandemic, many realized they didn’t have enough employees with the right skills to make the transition.

As a result, some organizations have resorted to increasing their spending on training and development programs, especially self-paced out of the box training. However, as the statistics below show, this approach, while practical, is not the best way to acquire and retain new skills.

The Most Effective Methods to Build Employees' Cloud Skills

To ensure that employees can retain and apply new cloud knowledge, leaders and managers must prioritize training methods that support deep learning and retention.

Discussions and hands-on practice allow employees to explore new concepts in depth and apply them in a real-world context. This type of learning is more effective than traditional lectures or reading material, and it is more likely to lead to long-term retention of new information.

By investing in learning methods that prioritize deep understanding, IT leaders can give their employees the tools they need to be successful as cloud evolves.

In the hierarchy of learning skills, lecturing is the least effective, and teaching skills to others is the best way to learn and retain new skills.

Between those two extremes are various learning methods that can help your team learn and retain IT cloud skills. The key is to find the learning methods that work best for your team, given each individual’s learning styles.