What are the best ways to build a strong team in Cloud Computing?

The vision should be not just the cloud team's (or IT's) but the business leadership's too. Without the business alignment on the strategy, success can be a far cry. Once that is set the team building efforts should focus on reviewing the current operating model. How IT operates in an on-prem environment will be very different to how one should in cloud. Outside consulting engagement can help here. They can also guide on approaches that has yield greater operational and business success such as CI/CD automation, Infrastructure As Code (IAC) and DevOps. Finally with the gap analysis on future state operating model and current state a hiring plan should be created with immediate, intermediate and long term plans.

One thing I want to add here as I have seen in the market is that.... ✅Some recruiters hire experienced candidates of a cloud skills but after joining the company they get the work of completely different skills. ✅Like they hire for AWS and project management assign them work of GCP. ✅That's fine but it becomes less productive for the experienced cloud engineer who has already given years in a different cloud. So , as a recruiter one should consider this issue strategically if possible. And also it's not completely the recruiter's fault. As per business requirements one should be open to learn new technologies also.

Foster collaboration between different functional areas within your team. Encourage communication and interaction between developers, operations, security, and other relevant departments. This helps in breaking down silos and ensures a holistic approach to cloud projects.

In my experience having a short term and long term goal is critical to public cloud adoption. You may see higher cost and not so tangible benefit in short term but in long it can support unlimited business growth and adoption of more modern digital platforms like AI, ML becomes easier.

Building a strong team in cloud computing requires a strategic approach that encompasses both technical expertise and effective collaboration. Firstly, focus on recruiting individuals with diverse skill sets, including proficiency in cloud platforms like AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud. Encourage continuous learning and certifications to stay abreast of evolving technologies.

Defining a well-articulated vision and setting specific goals for cloud computing initiatives is paramount. These objectives serve as a guiding light for the team, giving them a clear direction and shared purpose. A strong sense of alignment towards these goals can help the team stay focused, motivated, and collaborative, thus increasing the likelihood of successful outcomes.

Building a strong Cloud Computing team involves hiring diverse talents with expertise in areas like cloud architecture, security, and DevOps. Encouraging continuous learning through training programs and certifications helps keep skills current. Fostering effective communication, promoting collaboration, and setting clear goals align the team towards success. Embracing an agile mindset, providing opportunities for innovation, and recognizing achievements contribute to a motivated and cohesive team that can navigate the dynamic landscape of cloud technologies effectively.

Building a strong cloud computing team involves recruiting diverse skills, promoting continuous learning, fostering a collaborative culture, setting clear goals, empowering team members, ensuring effective communication, and supporting wellness and work-life balance.

Implement agile and DevOps practices Agile and DevOps are two methodologies that can help you streamline your cloud computing project and deliver value faster and more efficiently. Agile is a framework that focuses on delivering small, iterative, and customer-centric products, while DevOps is a culture that bridges the gap between development and operations teams. By implementing agile and DevOps practices, such as scrum, kanban, continuous integration, continuous delivery, and automation, you can improve your team's collaboration, productivity, quality, and customer satisfaction.

In order to hire good talents and develop them with the right cloud computing skills, the organisation needs to carefully pick a suitable leader with strong cloud competencies and understanding of existing environment to lead and groom those talents. A leader with strong cloud competencies can effectively lead and groom talents by providing mentorship, fostering a learning culture, and facilitating hands-on experiences. Encouraging continuous skill development, staying updated on cloud technologies, and creating opportunities for collaboration can also contribute to the growth of the team. This requires a strong leader who can be the role model for the team.

If you don't need results tomorrow or if you don't start over an entire new team you should look for people over skills. Intrinsic motivation, the will to perform, innovative power and honesty this is the way to go. Skills can be trained if the people love what they do.

While hiring and training skilled cloud engineers, assess candidates for cloud certifications, prioritize hands-on experience, and conduct technical interviews. 🌨️ ⏩Emphasize proficiency in cloud platforms like AWS, Azure or Google Cloud. Offer onthejob training, mentorship, and encourage continuous learning through online courses. ⏩Provides a collaborative environment, engage in real-world projects, and provide resources for staying updated on fastly evolving cloud technologies. ⏩Ensure a balance of technical expertise and communication skills. Regularly evaluate and adjust training programs to align with industry goals. And more importantly assign them the work for which you hired them to get more proficiency out of them. ✅

There are still scarcity of right people in the market. Companies are still struggling to get right set people due to high demand in Cloud business. Also every other day a new service is being released, a new tool banging the door. So we need to have right set of people based on companies vision and mission and to achieve the same , they need to either higher the focussed talent from the market or train the right set of people from within the organization.

Developing a solid and competent team requires strategic planning and a well-defined approach. One way to achieve this is by recruiting skilled individuals with cloud computing expertise or equipping the existing staff with the necessary training and resources. This will ensure that the team is equipped with the knowledge and skills to confidently and efficiently undertake complex and challenging cloud-based projects. By investing in the team's development, organizations can easily stay ahead of the curve and achieve their cloud computing objectives.

Aim for diversity in your team to bring in different perspectives and ideas. Diverse teams are often more innovative and better equipped to handle a variety of challenges.

This is super important! Communication across the organization is essential in driving awareness and excitement around these efforts. At that point, many organizations are eager to open the flood gates on training, but you must be prescriptive. While you might have advanced individuals seeking appropriate training to keep their skills sharp, the organization as a whole might not have many folks at that level. Consider offering shorter, introductory trainings to raise the overall or minimum cloud fluency. Then as your organization progresses in their cloud journey you can layer in more advanced training as those skills can be more immediately employed.

Hire or train the right skills: Technical expertise: Identify the specific technical skills needed for your cloud environment and cloud provider (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP). Soft skills: Look for individuals with strong communication, collaboration, problem-solving, and critical thinking skills. Diversity and inclusion: Build a diverse team with different backgrounds and perspectives to foster innovation and creativity. Skill development: Invest in ongoing training and development programs to keep your team's skills up-to-date with the latest cloud technologies.

By helping your cloud team to learn and grow by providing a supportive environment. 🌨️ ⏩Emphasize the value of continuous learning, making it easy for team members to access training resources. ⏩Share success stories to inspire curiosity and celebrate achievements. Promote open communication, where team members can ask questions and share knowledge. ⏩Provide opportunities for collaborative projects, allowing everyone to contribute and learn together. ⏩Recognize and reward efforts towards skill development. Create a culture where mistakes are seen as opportunities to learn, fostering innovation and adaptability. ⏩Regularly assess team skills, adjusting training plans to align with the ever-evolving landscape of cloud engineering.

It is not just learning new things and external trainings. A lot can be developed within the team itself . Each member in the team is skilful in some or the other way. Try having internal workshops regularly to share the teams knowledge, what is happening, what each team member is doing . This ensures: 1. Every team members are on the same page. 2. New team members know how the team works. 3. There is proper information exchange. 4. There is a personal connect happening with team members.

I have rarely met teams that did not want to learn and innovate. The teams that were not interested anymore were teams that have been repeatedly hindered by the organization to do so. Applying unfitting KPIs and metrics can lead to a team simply trying to fulfill those while losing their desire for innovation. Make sure you avoid any Cobra Effects when setting goals with teams.

Cloud computing is a rapidly evolving field. Provide continuous training opportunities for your team to keep their skills up-to-date. This can include workshops, certifications, and access to online learning platforms.

This point will be reinforced in your organization by supporting your cloud team with certification exams, courses and access to latest cloud events , this will help a lot on cloud adoption and specialization.

Driving an innovative mindset often drives people to think about 'new' and 'future' capability, which while often leads to good things, innovation can also be about leveraging historic or uncommon practices to best effect. 'Innovation' is as much about independent thinking as it is about 'futuristic' thinking. Some of technology's best ideas and practices are in the history books, make sure not to miss them in pursuit of new capability.

As businesses increasingly rely on cloud technologies, fostering a work environment that values continuous learning and encourages the exploration of innovative ideas becomes imperative. Such an approach keeps the team agile and adaptable to the evolving cloud landscape. By providing opportunities for professional development and creating a culture that promotes new thinking, organizations can ensure that their workforce stays up-to-date with the latest trends and best practices, ultimately leading to tremendous success and growth.

Promote a culture of learning and innovation: Encourage curiosity and exploration: Create an environment where team members feel comfortable asking questions, experimenting with new technologies, and proposing innovative ideas. Knowledge sharing and collaboration: Facilitate knowledge sharing through internal forums, brown bag sessions, and peer-to-peer learning opportunities. Cross-functional collaboration: Foster collaboration between the cloud team and other departments (e.g., business units, security, operations) to ensure alignment and optimize cloud usage.

In the dynamic realm of cloud computing, fostering a culture of continual learning and innovation is paramount. Encourage team exploration of new tech, participation in webinars, and online courses. Recognize achievements and provide feedback. Cultivate an environment where experimentation, failure, and learning are embraced. This promotes adaptability and keeps your team ahead in an ever-evolving technological landscape.

I think least optimal option is if we develop of learning culture and create pool of in house talent and top up with consulting and external experience. Also most of cloud providers come up with consulting options for customers which can be used in specific situations.

Automating the Infrastructure provisioning with IaC (Infrastructure as a Code) can help with complete automation of Application deployment without manual intervention from Developers. IaC can help your organization manage IT infrastructure needs while also improving consistency and reducing errors and manual configuration.

The impact on collaboration, productivity of cross functional teams, and quality of the outcomes is multi-fold with Agile and devops practices. Iterative changes with periodic sprint cycles help with camaraderie between development and operations team helps in delivering outcomes with faster time to market.

Agile and DevOps are two popular approaches used in cloud computing projects to enhance collaboration, efficiency, and speed. Agile focuses on iterative development, and DevOps integrates development and operations, enabling teams to deliver high-quality software faster. By combining these methodologies, cloud computing projects can be executed more efficiently, resulting in a better outcome for everyone.

existen tareas repetitivas, como despliegue de instancias o maquinas virtuales, cambios de clave instalación de app entre otros, hay muchas herramientas que permiten automatizar estas tareas, en mi experiencia prefiero utilizar terraform y ansible para realizar estos trabajos.

Implement agile and DevOps practices: Break down silos and encourage collaboration: Promote a culture of shared responsibility and ownership between different teams involved in cloud operations. Automate tasks and workflows: Automate repetitive tasks to free up team members' time for more strategic activities. Embrace continuous feedback and improvement: Foster a culture of continuous improvement by regularly collecting feedback and iterating on processes and procedures.

Agile and DevOps methodologies play pivotal roles in expediting cloud computing projects. Agile's focus on iterative, customer-centric deliveries synergizes with DevOps, bridging development and operations teams for seamless workflows. Additionally, integrating other practices like test-driven development (TDD), infrastructure as code (IaC), and monitoring and feedback loops further amplifies project success. TDD ensures software reliability, IaC automates infrastructure provisioning, and continuous monitoring enhances feedback for continuous improvement. This holistic approach optimizes collaboration, accelerates product development, boosts quality assurance, and fortifies customer satisfaction in cloud computing endeavours.

Cloud computing shines with its range of tools and services to boost your project's performance, scalability, security, and cost-efficiency. Embrace cloud-native tools like serverless functions, containers, microservices, and managed databases. They cut down on infrastructure management, ramp up flexibility, and enhance reliability. Plus, you tap into the cloud provider's expertise and ongoing innovations. It's all about making your project leaner, faster, and more secure with the right cloud tools.

Integrating cloud-native tools and services into your workflow can optimize your processes and enhance overall productivity. These cutting-edge tools are specifically designed to fully leverage the advantages of cloud-based environments, enabling you to streamline your operations and achieve greater efficiency and agility. Whether you're looking to automate your workflows, enhance collaboration, or improve data security, cloud-native tools and services offer the flexibility and scalability to meet your specific needs.

Use cloud-native tools and services: Leverage managed services: Consider using managed services offered by cloud providers to offload complex tasks and free up your team to focus on core competencies. Embrace automation tools: Utilize automation tools for tasks like configuration management, deployment, and infrastructure provisioning. Adopt cloud-native monitoring and logging tools: Implement tools that provide real-time insights into your cloud infrastructure and applications for better monitoring and troubleshooting.

Finding out what each member aspires and directs them to be their best version while collaborating within each other builds a strong team

Ensuring consistent team performance in cloud projects requires continual monitoring and enhancements. Metrics like availability, latency, errors, throughput, and efficiency provide insights into project outcomes. Moreover, gauge team satisfaction, engagement, and morale through feedback, surveys, and reviews. Beyond these, consider tracking user experience metrics, security compliance, and cost optimization. Analyzing these aspects allows you to pinpoint improvement areas and implement necessary adjustments. Celebrate milestones and successes, fostering a positive team culture. This iterative process of assessment, adaptation, and acknowledgment cultivates a high-performance environment, driving success in cloud computing initiatives.

Measure, monitor, and improve is a fundamental part of any process. You have to set goals and refine based on actual performance. Celebrate those successes and win together.

Monitoring is polling and listening. That is true for tech as well as for people. And as with tech, listening can seem easier but one must know what indicators to react on. Polling on the other side has to be done regularly to verify everything is in order and nothing is forgotten. Keep a positive environment so that communication stays proactive and effective.

“Teamwork makes the dream work,” is always going to be true. A group of people in sync can build something great from the ground up. Together, you can take advantage of each other’s strengths to do what you never could alone. Teamwork is the often underestimated tool that drives every successful business.

Have clarity on the goals of your project, but also hold flexibility in your thinking to change or add to them as you drive through your implementation or migration. There will always be opportunity to achieve valuable goals you had not planned for, and equally the real cost of some goals will be more than you had planned and no longer worthy of attaining. Holding an open mind to your project will ensure you end up successful.

To build and train an effective cloud team, it is essential to foster collaboration through regular brainstorming sessions. When team members come together and leverage their individual expertise in different cloud platforms, they can unlock new ideas and explore innovative approaches for cross-cloud projects. This diversity of knowledge allows the team to bring more value to their customers. Additionally, establishing connections with solution architects from the cloud provider can provide the team with valuable insights and tailored solutions to meet their specific project requirements, further enhancing their capabilities.

IMO I believe we need to under our Vision and Mission being a company and the build our Cloud Computing team. As Cloud in itself is pretty landscape. We need to understand what we are building or what we want to achieve. If we are building a cloud native solution for B2B or B2C segment then think from a SaaS based solution approach along with a combination of IaaS for hosting needs If we are building any services to be consumed by any cloud customers through cloud platform then PaaS based solution. If we are working towards any Infra related project like moving our physical data centers to cloud then we need to build a strategy and a plan to move the whole Infra as IaaS and accordingly think about the DR strategy, RTO/RPO numbers.

Culture eats strategy for breakfast, teamwork for lunch and tools for dinner. What this means is for you to build a strong team you have to critically scrutinize the culture as it plays a key role in fostering productivity through teamwork and collaboration. Overlooking culture and the rest of the things will flop. I have witnessed that team members who are willing to unlearn and relearn when it comes to Cloud have delivered outstanding results for their clients and employers alike. Ditch the "This is how we do things here" mentality for "How best can we do things here" is pivotal in taking the first step towards phenomenal Cloud teams.