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Patrick Gonzalez
CST 300-30_FA17 Major Pro Seminar
Friday, September 16, 2017
Software Engineer’s Migration into The Cloud

The Cloud Industry

According to Columbus (2017), “Cloud computing is projected to increase from $67B in

2015 to $162B in 2020 attaining a compound annual growth rate of 19%.” The development of

cloud computing is increasing the size of the job market for computer software engineers. Cloud

computing is an internet-based service such as streaming movies, music, document editing, and

data storage. The services cloud computing provides to computer and smartphone users

diminishes the need to download programs that use a ton computer memory. Therefore, the

future of software engineering is in cloud architecture, and the facilitation of services migrated

into the cloud. As downloadable software and onboard file managers are phasing out and moving

into the cloud, the development of cloud-based services grows. The need for software engineers

to fill cloud based jobs will increase for many years to come.

The leading cloud services today are hosted by Amazon, Microsoft, Google, HP,

Verizon, CenturyLink, and IBM. These companies are leading the cloud computing industry

with their increasing innovation of different cloud architecture, which is developed by computer

software engineers. The presentation of cloud services to the public has taken many forms. On

the consumer end, we see it in services such as Microsoft’s One Drive and Microsoft’s Office

365. Large corporations are currently using cloud-based services such as Amazon’s web

services for storage, databases, analytics, networking, and management tools just to name a few

(Amazon, 2017). A vast majority of cloud services require paid subscriptions which help in the

maintenance and future development of cloud services. Every year more companies are creating

their own type of cloud architecture and along with that new and more creative services for both
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consumers and large corporations. The increasing demand for new applications of cloud

computing is opening a new job market for people with computer software engineering skills.

According to Synergy Research Group (2014), Amazon’s web services are said to be in a

league of its own, surpassing Microsoft and other cloud computing companies in annual market

growth over four quarters and market shares. Amazon is one of the leading innovators in cloud

architecture and continues to grow as a company with the numerous services that they provide,

but also in the web services they offer. As a long-term goal, it would be wise for any software

engineer to seek a a career in cloud computing. As the development of new technology and the

creation of new software grow every year, so will the need for software engineers to help

maintain and build new cloud architecture to support them.

Bishop (2017) stated, “Amazon added more than 110,000 employees during the past

year, topping 341,000 people as of the end of 2016 thanks largely to a significant increase in the

Seattle-based tech giant’s network of fulfillment centers around the world.” Amazon’s company

is growing inside and out. They provide many services ranging from e-commerce to basic cloud

services and more sophisticated cloud services such as Amazon Web Services. Amazon’s e-

commerce offers an online shopping experience where you can find anything from big brand-

named items to personally sold items. Along with their growing inventory, Amazon has also

created a whole new delivery method for their company known as Amazon Prime. Amazon

Prime, a paid membership, provides members with a two-day shipping service for selected items.

Due to the volume of people subscribing to the Prime service, Amazon now needs more

warehouses all around the country. Currently, Amazon has over ninety warehouses throughout

the United States, and in conjunction to their warehouses, Amazon has also created new and

innovative ways to operate their facilities and provide prompt delivery to their customer. Today
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their warehouses are controlled by robotics, and they are now in the testing phase of a drone

delivery method. Prime members also have access to some of Amazon’s cloud-based services

that include streaming music, movies, tv shows, and cloud data storage. Amazon Web Services

provides a platform for business, large or small, to manage large-scale data storage in a secure

network of servers worldwide. Amazon Web Services allows scalability for companies to

combine multiple web services from data storage to order handling and web hosting in one

location. The scalability is the ability to connect many computing processes of different calibers.

What that means is, it allows services that are written in different programming languages to

speak to each other through one computing process. Amazon’s e-commerce is also supported by

their own Amazon Wed Service. Their web services have become the flagship of the cloud

computing industry. The increasing number of services that cloud computing provides around

the world has also increased employment opportunities for computer scientist from project

management to software development and graphic design.

Amazon was founded by Jeff Bezos in 1994 out of his garage in Seattle, Washington.

Bezos started his journey through a single website that only sold books. Although what began as

a single category website eventually expanded to an online retailer for everyday household

products, clothing, and eventually electronics. By 1997 Amazon had finalized its IPO in the

stock exchange. Today Amazon now offers a wide variety of goods and services such as cloud

computing and now grocery markets. Bezos motivation to grow his company as large as the

Amazon river that his company is named after is the catalyst behind the growth of Amazon. The

mindset of always moving forward is pushing the company into an even larger corporation today

that covers many products and services and houses a never-ending growing number of

employees.
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Jeffrey P. Benzos is not only Amazon’s founder but also President, Chief Executive

Officer and Chairman of the board. Benzos graduated from Princeton University, summa cum

laude, Phi Beta Kappa graduate in engineering and computer science (Amazon, 2017). Benzos

education in engineering and computer science is inspiring; it shows that a computer geek is

capable of doing more than programming software and games. Amazon’s web services Chief

Executive Officer is Andrew R. Jassy. Jassy is also the creator of AWS (Amazon Web Services),

one of the leading cloud computing infrastructure (Amazon, 2017). With not just one computer

software engineer but two as the executives of Amazon, it is no surprise that Amazon has

developed so many innovative ways to utilize technology. Being that Amazon was founded and

expanded by computer software engineers it stands to reason that the company will continue to

move forward with the help of computer software engineers.

Amazon is ranked #3 as one of Forbes most innovative companies with a market cap of

$427 billion (Forbes, 2017). Amazon’s reputation is built up of the viewpoint of their customers

and how the world views them. Amazon relies heavily on how their customers receive customer

service, product quality, and employee satisfaction. Through word of mouth, Amazon was able

to build and maintain an excellent repour that has outshined most companies. According to a

company that ranks companies based on the viewpoint of the consumers, The Harris Poll (2017),

Amazon ranked third in 2017 in comparison to 100 companies. Amazon has continuously ranked

in the top ten for nine consecutive years. They have earned their market cap not through

overcharging for their services but by providing exceptional customer service along with their

products and services. As Amazon expands into new markets so will their demand for

employees.
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Cloud computing is in constant need for new architects and people with the ability to

migrate existing software and data into the cloud. Today cloud computing is working toward a

more secure global practice. As well as how to best handle cloud privacy. Corporations do

business and have offices all over the world. With current practices of a single server per office

the ability to merge all of the office servers globally would increase productivity and efficiency.

Unfortunately, there is the concern of security, especially when there are databases from one or

more company on one server or a hub or servers. With the potential violation of information in

the cloud, there is the need for more advanced security measures and privacy options. Another

new adventure cloud computing is exploring is the ability to take the cloud services serverless.

One of the most common uses of the cloud for a consumer is software access. Currently,

software is dependent on checking into the cloud servers to re-establish authentication for paid

subscription services. Without an authentication key, some services or minimized or unavailable.

While still in the beginning stages of taking cloud-based software serverless, engineers had to

develop code to allow software to authenticate its self without the need to access the cloud. As

cloud computing grows into new territory, situation as these will continuously arise, and there

will be the need for more software engineers to create new lines of code and new software to

maintain and expand the cloud further.

A Personal Journey Into The Cloud

There are many job opportunities for computer software engineers and choosing the right

fit can be difficult. Sometimes there is no such thing as the right fit. Today software engineers

must take many roles other than just being a coder, which requires an educational background

and experience in many aspects of computer science along with other fields that may not pertain

to computer science at all. There are many opportunities for computer software engineering
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majors, but cloud computing has the most potential and the brightest future. Companies such as

Amazon who started using cloud computing for software deployment have helped build a strong

future for cloud computing that is still developing till this day. Becoming a part of the future of

technology is exciting, and that is why I decided to pursue a career in cloud computing.

There are many branches of the cloud computing department. The cloud architects job is

to develop, deploy and integrate cloud services and is at the highest level. The architect overseas

the building blocks of cloud projects and has the final decision on their outcome. The cloud

software engineer’s responsibility ranges from the maintenance to the development of the cloud

infrastructures and how the software works in conjunction with the cloud. The cloud data

engineer focuses on the data infrastructure and how the cloud handles the flow of data. The cloud

service developer’s responsibility is the interface of the software on the business end of cloud

services. Their responsibilities range from the building phases to the final development of the

interface and its maintenance. Then there is the cloud system administrator; their task is to

maintain the cloud and to troubleshoot any problems that arise. These are some of the most

important departments of the cloud but not all of them. As the increase in the development of

software and styles of cloud infrastructures, there will also be an increase in jobs to handle all the

aspects of the cloud.

Cloud computing requires many skills from data management to software engineering,

graphic design, and even business. California State University of Monterey Bay’s course

pathway for computer software engineering covers many areas of the computer science field.

They include the necessary programming skills of multimedia design in order to build and

compile applications that handle multimedia formats. They also cover database systems to

provide knowledge in how to create and manipulate databases which is an essential feature of
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cloud computing. CSUMB also provides knowledge in software design focused on object-

oriented programming. Internet programming is another course that CSUMB offers which

concentrates on the development and architecture of many web programming languages. The

university also cover graphics programming to develop skills in game programming. It is

essential to have a strong background in different programming languages, which is an important

feature of cloud computing. Design and analysis of algorithms is another outstanding course that

CSUMB offers which will build skills in developing more efficient algorithms. The computer

software engineering majors from CSUMB will have many skills which employers would prefer

to see in potential employees in the cloud computing industry. A bachelor in computer science is

a must for any cloud computing position. Employers will also be impressed with an associate in

business and taking other electives in business will help to develop a healthy mindset in how the

corporate world views the importance and use of cloud computing. A background in business

and customer service would indicate one’s flexibility and willingness to grow into upper

management positions that require more interpersonal skills. Outside of school, the need to

certify in one or more of the different cloud architectures is required, such as Amazon’s cloud

architecture style called AWS. Although, certifying in just one style would not be strategic as to

keep options open to other corporations. Therefore, a certificate in Google certified professional

cloud architecture or IBM certified cloud solution architect v2 would also be a wise choice. A

computer software engineering degree from CSUMB, a degree in business, along with

interpersonal skills, and knowledge of different programming languages, as well as different

cloud architectures, would build a promising path into the cloud industry.

There are two fields to consider for a career path in today’s cloud computing industry.

There is the road of the IT pro who specializes in one style of cloud architecture such as
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Amazon’s AWS or Microsoft Azure (Linthicum, 2015). Then there are IT admins that specialize

in how cloud architecture function in general (Linthicum, 2015). For a computer software

engineering major to begin a career path into the cloud industry it is important to show a

comprehension of cloud computing software and migration. As a new software engineering

major, it may be necessary to strive to reach the IT admin level of cloud computing as the first

goal. Therefore, to start a portfolio from the ground up to reach the IT admin level it would be

necessary to begin a career as a business analyst or a systems administrator. A position as a

systems administrator would help build a portfolio for entry-level positions within a corporation

as to gain a better understanding of data management and the beginning stages of cloud

computing and infrastructure.

As a preparation for employment, it would be wise to first start in an internship.

Specifically, an internship focused toward cloud migration and uploading applications and

software to the cloud for use in a corporate intranet. Currently Amazon host internships in both

Herndon, Virginia and Seattle, Washington. IBM is also currently hosting an internship that is

online based. Both of which are for their cloud computing department. Most internships require a

bachelor in computer science or software engineering. Therefore, finding employment in the tech

industry to build a more substantial resume would be the most logical start while still in college.

A career path in cloud computing is a complicated one that requires many skill sets to succeed.

With education goals and a strategic career path to follow, obtaining a personal future in cloud

computing is possible. The future of technology is migrating into the cloud and I want to be a

part of that future.

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References

Amazon.com on the Forbes World’s Most Innovative Companies List. (n.d.). Retrieved

September 04, 2017, from https://www.forbes.com/companies/amazon/

Bishop, T. (2017, February 03). Amazon soars to more than 341K employees - adding more than

110K people in a single year. Retrieved September 09, 2017, from

https://www.geekwire.com/2017/amazon-soars-340k-employees-adding-110k-people-

single-year/

Columbus, L. (2017, April 29). Roundup Of Cloud Computing Forecasts, 2017. Retrieved

September 08, 2017, from

https://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2017/04/29/roundup-of-cloud-computing-

forecasts-2017/#356d7a5d31e8

Linthicum, D. (2015, March). Are you on the right cloud computing career path? Retrieved

September 04, 2017, from http://searchcloudcomputing.techtarget.com/feature/Are-you-

on-the-right-cloud-computing-career-path

NV, S. R. (2014, October 29). Microsoft Cloud Revenues Leap; Amazon is Still Way Out in

Front. Retrieved September 10, 2017, from

https://www.srgresearch.com/articles/microsoft-cloud-revenues-leap-amazon-still-way-

out-front

Poll, T. H. (2017, June 7). Wegmans, Publix Super Markets, Amazon, Tesla And USAA Draw

Top Social Responsibility Scores In Harris Poll. Retrieved September 10, 2017, from

http://www.theharrispoll.com/business/Top-Social-Responsibility-Scores.html
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Working At Amazon. (n.d.). Retrieved September 04, 2017, from

https://www.amazon.com/p/feature/rzekmvyjojcp6uc