Accelerate your cloud transformation with a tailored workforce upskilling strategy

Cloud transformation is the process of migrating an organization’s IT infrastructure, applications, and data to a cloud computing environment. An organization can gain a lot from this transformation, including enhanced productivity, lower costs, and more scalable and flexible solutions. But putting into practice a successful cloud transformation needs careful strategy, implementation, and the appropriate skills and knowledge.  This blog post examines how training and skill development are essential for a company to achieve its cloud transformation objectives, and how an AWS Learning Needs Analysis can help you get started.

Challenges in Cloud Transformation

There are several key elements that must be addressed to ensure a successful cloud migration. Spoiler alert: they all involve skilling your staff.

1. Adapting to new technologies and processes. A business may need to learn how to use cloud-based services, like those from Amazon Web Services (AWS), if it is accustomed to managing its own on-premises servers. To set the organization up for success, promoting a culture of continuous learning and professional growth, with accessible options for training on key technologies, is a must. This may entail giving staff members access to online learning tools and motivating them to seize chances to advance their knowledge of the industry and pick up new skills.

2. Moving current applications and data to the cloud. This process necessitates particular knowledge and abilities and can be complicated and time-consuming. By providing employees with training on cloud migration and modernization best practices and tools, the organization can ensure that the migration/modernization process is smooth and successful.

3. Implementing cloud security best practices. Your teams will need to understand data security best practices and have expertise with particular security tools and technologies. By providing employees with training on these topics, the organization can ensure that its data is protected during the migration process.

Benefits and value of upskilling your workforce on AWS

AWS provides a variety of tools and services that businesses may use to create and deploy applications, manage infrastructure, and carry out other operations. By providing employees with training on AWS technologies and best practices, organizations can ensure that they are able to effectively drive business value from their AWS Cloud adoption.

The value of upskilling your staff in cloud computing cannot be overstated. Investing in the skills of your workforce secures your investment in the cloud. A financial analysis by Forrester Research found that organizations that invest in AWS Training and Certification see payback in less than six months and 234% return on investment (ROI) over three years.

This ROI includes an 88% increase in cloud innovation; 30-50% increase app migration rates, 10-35% increase in employee retention, 20-30% decrease in learner ramp-up time, and filling 20-30% of open roles by upskilling existing staff vs. hiring new employees.

Organizations can approach cloud skill development in a variety of ways, including utilizing more than 600 free, digital, self-paced training courses and resource on AWS Skills Builder, selecting and investing in live, instructor-led trainings conducted in person or virtually, and engaging in enablement programs like AWS Skills Guild.

The optimal approach is for an organization to identify their unique training and professional development needs, then create a strategy that both satisfies those needs and fits with the organization’s broader goals and objectives.

AWS Learning Needs Analysis

The AWS Learning Needs Analysis (LNA) helps organizations do just that. The LNA helps an organization identify the precise AWS knowledge and skills that employees need – and where current skills and competency gaps exist – in order to effectively use AWS, tailored to the organization’s unique cloud goals and strategies. This process uses a free, self-assessment tool to query the organization’s employees. An AWS expert reviews the results with the organization and pinpoints the upskilling needs. They use this information to create a tailored training and upskilling program that responds to the organization’s cloud transformation objectives with a targeted, cost-effective training and certification plan.

ShopBack, Transaction Network Services (TNS) Communications, and Lumen each utilized the LNA to address their organization’s cloud skilling goals. Here is what they had to say about the LNA process and their employees’ upskilling results:

“We were looking to improve application efficiency and team productivity on AWS and used the AWS Learning Needs Analysis to assess cloud proficiency of 200 employees across four countries,” said Prashant Singh, vice president of Engineering at ShopBack. “The LNA allowed us to quickly identify where we had to focus our efforts and budget. AWS Training and Certification delivered an eight-week customized training program to our developers, DevOps, and SysOps teams. We saw immediate results! The training helped us make improvements to the ShopBack application’s search engine, resulting in improved customer experience and increased purchases.”

Luc Saraka, vice president and chief technical architect at TNS Communications Market, remarked, “We were able to benefit from the AWS Learning Needs Analysis to get a holistic picture of where our organization currently stands with respect to AWS capabilities. This has helped us identify potential gaps in their knowledge of AWS services and provided us with the baseline for a comprehensive and targeted training plan. The training we’re utilizing includes both instructor-led classes and AWS Immersion Days, and has resulted in a broader understanding of AWS resources.”

Rachael Lethbridge Smythe, senior alliance manager EMEA for Lumen, explained, “As an AWS Partner, the Learning Needs Analysis allowed us to quantitatively evaluate our skills gaps and develop targeted learning plans aligned to Lumen’s business goals across the region. The LNA enabled our employees to define what their learning goals are, aligned to business goals, and that any certification or training completed would be valuable and relevant to both. This keeps teams highly engaged and motivated, with personalized training to help them succeed in their sales, pre-sales, and technical roles.”

Take the next step

If your organization is investing in cloud, providing employees with the necessary knowledge and skills can drive increased efficiency, productivity, and competitiveness. By conducting an LNA and developing a targeted training plan, you can ensure your investments are driving maximum value for your business. Get started with an LNA today.