India cloud sector to boast a million jobs by 2022: Study

The Indian cloud sector will have a million jobs by 2022, said a research report by education technology firm Great Learning. An average entry-level cloud professional earns 40% more than the average entry-level infotech executive even as the traditional IT roles are being redefined, the report added. Accenture, Oracle, Deloitte, Adobe, SAP Labs and Mphasis were among the top recruiters of cloud professionals in the country, the report said.

The research methodology used for generating the cloud computing report involved conversations with senior cloud experts in the industry (from organisations like Microsoft, IBM and Dell), recruiting managers as well as subject-matter experts. This was supplemented by data from industry research reports.

According to the Great Learning report, even the entry-level salaries of cloud professionals are double that of traditional IT professionals. It added that cloud architects and other specialists earn upwards of Rs 30 lakh per annum. An entry-level cloud professional earns Rs 5-7 lakh yearly, as against an entry-level IT engineer who earns Rs 3-5 lakh per annum.

Cloud architects, a new role in the cloud space, understand both IT infrastructure and applications and can design and manage application frameworks and operation. Such professionals with experience of more than 15 years could even earn up to Rs 1 crore per year, the report said.

"In the last year, we have seen huge demand from the banking, consulting, healthcare, retail, automotive and manufacturing sectors. Understanding how entire industries are getting automated and moving to the cloud is an essential skill for developers, architects, and decision-makers," said Harish Subramaniam, programme director of post-graduate programme in cloud computing at Great Learning.

Quoting a recent report by technology research firm IDC, Great Learning said there is only one qualified candidate for every 100 job postings, requiring the hiring companies to train its employees. Globally, the industry suffers from an acute shortage of talent with more than 1.7 million cloud jobs remaining vacant, the report said.   

"The major reasons for this gap are lack of training, hands-on experience in a cloud-based environment and industry-recognised certification. This skill gap comes at a time when almost two-thirds of global enterprises are using cloud computing; and the investment being made in cloud infrastructure is 4.5 times the rate of traditional IT spending," the report noted.

The Indian cloud computing market is currently pegged at $2.2 billion and is growing rapidly. It is expected to be worth $4 billion by 2020 with an annual growth rate of more than 30%, said the report by Great Learnings, which runs courses for artificial intelligence, machine learning business analytics, cloud computing and management course at its MBA college Great Lakes Institute of Management.