TechForge

1st June 2016

(c)iStock.com/peshkov

Jobs relating to Amazon Web Services (AWS) have gone up 53% over the past year while job postings requiring Microsoft Azure experience have increased by 75%, according to new data from managed cloud provider Rackspace.

The research figures are not quite as marked as last year’s analysis, when job postings including Docker went up 991% year on year, but it’s still more of the same; Docker postings went up 341% over the past 12 months. DevOps skill sets went up a modest 53% in comparison with 3,723 jobs available on the market, yet Rackspace argues this is indicative of the area moving more into the mainstream, and companies willing to use budget to hire staff with particular expertise.

Vacancies for AWS engineer roles have gone up by 125%, while Microsoft Azure-based jobs have gone up 5% in salary on average.

Elsewhere, Python expertise saw a ‘significant’ rise, with 6,186 jobs spotted in 2016, up 32% from 4,694 in 2015. Linux and Puppet, again key to the DevOps and Docker scenario, again rose in the past 12 months.

Despite the recent widely publicised commercial launch of the BBC Microbit, aimed at being the first step to getting such skills on board at a young age, Rackspace argues organisations need to do more. “Technology companies have a responsibility to address these shortages by growing and fostering talent through on the job training and experience,” said Darren Norfolk, Rackspace UK managing director.

“I expect the rise in demand for cloud related jobs to continue as a growing number of businesses adopt a multi-cloud strategy, using platforms such as Microsoft Azure, OpenStack and AWS,” he added. “The highly competitive recruitment market for skills in these areas means that managing the platforms in-house could become more costly than it has been in the past.”

Firebrand Training, a firm which specialises in technical job skills, cited Python as well as Linux – with more than a quarter of servers powering Azure being Linux based – as key cloud skills back in February.

About the Author

James has more than a decade of experience as a tech journalist, writer and editor, and served as Editor in Chief of TechForge Media between 2017 and 2021. James was named as one of the top 20 UK technology influencers by Tyto, and has also been cited by Onalytica, Feedspot and Zsah as an influential cloud computing writer.

Related

8th October 2026

7th October 2026

5th October 2026

5th October 2026

Join our Community

Subscribe now to get all our premium content and latest tech news delivered straight to your inbox

Popular

48691 view(s)
20794 view(s)
12791 view(s)
7557 view(s)

Subscribe

All our premium content and latest tech news delivered straight to your inbox

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.