Global Knowledge CEO: Architect Certifications White-Hot As Cloud Drives Multivendor Solutions

Global Knowledge CEO Sean Dolan said certification providers are focusing more on holistic, architect-driven solutions rather than individual components as the cloud makes multivendor environments more manageable.

Organizations are increasingly looking for employees with enough knowledge to architect solutions containing cloud, cybersecurity, application development and Infrastructure-as-a-Service elements, Dolan told CRN following Global Knowledge's release of its 2017 IT Skills and Salary Report. Cary, N.C.-based Global Knowledge is a provider of business training and certification coursework.

"You need an architect that can take a step back and understand generally overall what the solution is going to be versus just a specific technology," Dolan said. "We're seeing as you move toward cloud, people are looking more at the architecture piece."

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Dolan cited the Amazon Web Services Certified Solutions Architect as an example of a big, vendor-specific certification focused on architecture. More than 370 of Global Knowledge's nearly 6,500 North American survey respondents reported having earned this certification – up from 220 in 2016 – and commanded an average annual salary of nearly $119,000.

Companies are particularly interested in architects with knowledge across the security ecosystem from hardware and firewalls to data governance and privacy, Dolan said. Organizations are increasingly focusing on security architectures and software development in lieu of maintaining infrastructure elements within their own organization, according to Dolan.

Architects are absolutely essential for developing best-in-class solutions that encompass multiple different components, Dolan said. The level of architecture capability possessed internally by end users tends to vary based on solution focus and size of the organization, Dolan said, but will often include roles such as program architects and data architects.

"I can't imagine any organization over $200 million in revenue that doesn't have a data architect sitting inside their IT organization," he said.

But customers will often turn to solution providers for vendor-specific architect capabilities such as a Salesforce architect, Dolan said.

"Where companies used to have single vendors as a solution, now that we're going to the cloud you don't really have a partner like an Oracle or like a SAP providing the vast majority of solutions," Dolan said. "It's getting more complicated as people move into a DevOps environment."

Organizations therefore tend to have multiple application development environments across the Amazon, Microsoft and Google ecosystems, Dolan said, which in turn have to be wrapped with sufficient security protection.

Companies typically prefer having a multivendor environment if it's feasible from an operational and IT perspective, Dolan said, since it enables them to manage different types of data differently. For instance, an organization's marketing department might be more open to putting data in the public cloud than the financial department since the marketing team has fewer concerns around data security.

"The businesses are more involved with the solutions," Dolan said. "They have a say."

Decisions can be made independently with the organization at a branch or functional level, Dolan said. In terms of leveraging public cloud, Dolan said organizations looking for more flexibility and openness tend to opt for Microsoft Azure, while those that prioritize ease of putting up workflows in a proscriptive manner tend to prefer Amazon Web Services.

Organizations are in the process of retraining longtime employees around emerging technologies and getting more novice employees the experience needed to master new IT delivery models, Dolan said. Companies sometimes find the new skill sets they desire aren't available where they have offices, he said, forcing CIOs to look inward and focus on transforming capabilities within their own organization.

"CIO's can't hire their way out of this problem," Dolan said. "The skills just don't exist."