Cloud security is the combination of people, processes, and technology needed to protect cloud computing environments from cyberattacks and data breaches. With more businesses using the cloud than ever and the number of malicious cyber actors on the rise, these two trends have collided to make cloud security one of the hottest IT trends of 2023. According to a Skillsoft study, Cloud Security was the most popular technical skills topic in 2022 (Skillsoft, 2022).
Of course, to properly deal with cloud computing security issues, companies must hire or train employees to become certified cloud security engineer professionals. So why should IT professionals consider learning cloud security skills in the first place? This article will discuss the three greatest advantages of learning cloud security skills in 2023 and beyond.
1. Earn More as a Cybersecurity Professional
New IT certifications can have a significant positive impact on workers’ salaries, according to research by the training firm Global Knowledge. IT professionals who said they received a raise due to new certifications reported an average salary increase of $12,000, compared to the baseline increase of $5,000 (Kolakowski, N., 2020). Becoming a certified cloud security professional provides access to new job opportunities (both internal and external) with a corresponding hike in income. Salary.com estimates that the average U.S. salary for jobs requiring cloud security skills is $178,053 (Salary.com, 2023).
Learning cloud security skills—whether through higher education, certifications, or on-the-job experience—is an excellent way to bolster your resume, strengthen your position during salary negotiations, and make yourself more attractive to potential employers. While some cybersecurity professionals specialize in a specific cloud provider (such as Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure), others choose a vendor-neutral approach that fits well with hybrid and multi-cloud environments.
By learning cloud security skills, cybersecurity professionals can dramatically enhance their value, drawing from their training to apply cloud security best practices. From Linux, Python, and Kubernetes to authentication and authorization, a certified cloud security professional has the knowledge and experience necessary to protect cloud environments from cyberattacks.
2. Access Greater Cybersecurity Job Opportunities
By becoming a certified cloud security professional, you aren’t just increasing your potential earnings—you’re also significantly increasing the number of job opportunities available. Technology professionals who can successfully deploy cloud security strategies are some of the most in-demand employees in the so-called “IT skills gap.” Demand for cloud security skills has never been higher, both from employees and the companies that hire them. Many IT professionals are recognizing and responding to this demand by expressing interest in developing their skills. According to a 2022 survey by Pluralsight, cybersecurity and cloud computing are by far the most in-demand skills for IT workers. Forty-three percent of technology professionals say that cybersecurity is their greatest IT skill concern, while 39% are most interested in boosting their competencies in cloud computing (Pluralsight, 2022).
3. Avoid Becoming Obsolete – The Cloud Is Here to Stay
The field of information technology has always been rapidly changing, with new innovations constantly appearing and disappearing. However, a select few of these developments have been able to stand the test of time and prove their worth as an essential component of enterprise IT.
Cloud computing is one such development: it has long since gone from being a cutting-edge technology to a best practice for businesses of all sizes and industries. According to Flexera’s 2021 “State of the Cloud” report, 99% of companies say they use at least one public or private cloud. What’s more, a large majority of these are using a more complex setup, such as hybrid cloud or multi-cloud, that requires greater attention to cloud security issues (Flexera, 2021).
It’s perhaps no surprise that cloud computing has grown to surpass on-premises IT, given its many advantages. For one, the cloud is often more cost-effective, given its transparent “pay as you go” pricing model, versus the need to make large upfront purchases with on-premises computing. The cloud also has benefits in terms of flexibility and scalability—letting users rapidly spin up instances, experiment with new ideas, and scale their resource consumption as needed. Cloud providers offer service level agreements (SLAs) that guarantee a specific percentage of uptime and availability and also assume responsibility for support and maintenance issues.
Nevertheless, the cloud comes with its own set of challenges, including potential security problems. According to a survey by Venafi, 51% of IT decision-makers believe that the security risks of the cloud are greater than those of on-premises (Boose, S., 2022). Cloud security, therefore, involves the intersection of a well-established enterprise IT practice with a serious threat to organizations’ integrity—which means that the field of cloud security is no doubt here to stay for a long time.
Conclusion
From increasing your salary and job opportunities to staying relevant in the field, learning cloud security skills in 2023 is an excellent way to advance your career. The question then becomes: which program should you choose to become a certified cloud security professional?
EC-Council’s C|CSE (Certified Cloud Security Engineer) program gives students the real-world skills and tools they need to work in the rapidly growing field of cloud security. With 11 modules and more than 50 hands-on labs, the C|CSE course helps students develop the right combination of theoretical and practical skills necessary to succeed in the fast-paced cloud security domain. C|CSE students learn how to define and implement security policies to protect cloud infrastructure and applications. The C|CSE certification adopts a largely vendor-neutral approach while teaching vendor-specific concepts for cloud providers such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform. C|CSE also covers the implementation of important governance frameworks and regulations such as HIPAA, ISO/IEC 27017, and PCI DSS.
Ready to become a certified cloud security professional? Learn more about EC-Council’s C|CSE certification and jumpstart your career in cloud computing.
References
Kolakowski, N. (2020, July 16). How Much Will Certifications and Skills Boost Your Pay? Dice. https://www.dice.com/career-advice/how-much-will-certifications-skills-boost-your-pay
Salary.com. (2023, April 03). Average Salary for Jobs with Cloud Security Skills. https://www.salary.com/research/salary/skill/cloud-security-salary
Pluralsight. (2022). State of Upskilling 2022. https://www.pluralsight.com/resource-center/state-of-upskilling-2022
Flexera. (2021). 2021 State of the Cloud Report. https://lp.tufin.com/rs/769-ICF-145/images/report-cm-state-of-the-cloud-2021.pdf
Boose, S. (2022, September 29). 81% of Companies have had a Cloud Security Incident in the Last Year [Venafi Research]. Venafi. https://venafi.com/blog/81-companies-have-had-had-cloud-security-incident-last-year-venafi-research/
Skillsoft. (2022). Lean Into Learning. https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/skillsoft.com/prod/documents/Skillsoft_Annual_report_Lean_Into_
Learning_02_2023.pdf
About the Author
David Tidmarsh is a programmer and writer. He’s worked as a software developer at MIT, has a B.A. in history from Yale, and is currently a graduate student in computer science at UT Austin.
