In the past, the only way to assess Azure cloud engineering skills in the hiring process was through multiple choice or whiteboard questions. But these question types don’t measure whether candidates can complete real cloud engineering tasks.

It’s time to change the way you hire Azure cloud engineers. 

Enter our latest feature: Azure hands-on questions. This addition to the HackerRank library lets you evaluate candidates’ real-world skills directly in the Azure portal, ensuring that you find the right fit for your team.

Why hands-on questions are important

Traditional interviews often rely on theoretical knowledge. But theoretical knowledge is exactly that—theoretical. It can fall short in predicting a candidate’s actual job performance—especially in cloud engineering roles. Hands-on questions bridge this gap by providing a practical assessment of real-world cloud skills.

Real-world cloud skills assessments

With our Azure hands-on questions, candidates can show off their abilities in a controlled environment. They won’t just answer multiple choice questions; they’ll roll up their sleeves to solve real challenges in the Azure portal. 

This hands-on approach ensures that you’re not just assessing theoretical knowledge but evaluating their capacity to apply what they know in a practical setting.

How it works

So, how do the Azure hands-on questions function?

1. Login to Azure portal: Candidates will log into a real Azure Portal using a temporary account provisioned by HackerRank. This provisioning happens automatically when the candidate takes the assessment. 
2. Complete tasks: During the assessment, candidates tackle a range of hands-on questions, like setting up a virtual network or configuring network security groups.
3. Automatic scoring: Once candidates finish their assessment, their results are automatically scored and logged in the test report. This streamlines the evaluation process while ensuring that you have clear, quantifiable results to guide your hiring decisions.

New library questions

Our library now includes a diverse range of Azure questions across varying levels of difficulty. A few examples of the real-world challenges candidates might face with our new test questions include:

• Setting up a virtual network: Candidates can showcase their ability to create and configure virtual networks that meet specific requirements.
• Configuring network security groups: This task assesses candidates’ understanding of cloud security and networking principles.
• Hosting a website using Azure web apps: This practical exercise evaluates both technical skills and understanding of web application hosting.

With these hands-on challenges, candidates will not only prove their skills, but also give you insights into their problem-solving approach and creativity.

Wrapping up

Incorporating Azure hands-on questions into your hiring process helps you better select candidates who are capable of tackling challenges in a real cloud environment. By evaluating practical skills, you can better predict job success, leading to more effective hiring decisions.

Say goodbye to those Azure multiple choice questions. Embrace the future of hiring with Azure hands-on questions and ensure you stock your team with the best cloud engineering talent. 

Request a demo today to see Azure questions in action.

The post Assess Real Cloud Skills in Real Azure Environments appeared first on HackerRank Blog.

The cloud computing industry has experienced tremendous growth over the past decade, with businesses of all sizes embracing the cloud for its flexibility, scalability, and cost-effectiveness. The availability of cloud-based solutions has enabled companies to operate in a more agile and efficient manner, allowing them to focus on innovation and growth rather than managing their own infrastructure. As a result, the demand for skilled cloud engineers has skyrocketed, with companies eagerly seeking individuals who can design, implement, and manage cloud-based solutions that meet their unique needs.

The pace of innovation in the cloud shows no signs of slowing down either, with new tools and services being introduced on a regular basis. In fact, Gartner forecasts worldwide public cloud end-user spending to reach nearly $600 billion in 2023. As more companies shift to the cloud, the demand for cloud engineering skills continues to rise, making it crucial for tech professionals to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and technologies in the field. In this blog post, we’ll explore some of the most important cloud computing skills that will be in high demand in 2023, providing insights for both hiring managers and tech professionals alike.

Cloud Security

With more and more data being stored in the cloud, security is becoming a top priority for organizations, making this one of the most critical skills for cloud engineers to possess in 2023. As companies continue to move their operations to the cloud, they must ensure that their data and systems are secure from threats such as hacking, data breaches, and cyber attacks. Cloud security encompasses a range of best practices, technologies, and principles that are designed to protect cloud-based assets from these types of threats.

Key cloud security principles include:

• Identity and access management, which ensures that access is only granted to authorized users
• Data encryption, which is the process of encoding sensitive data to protect it from unauthorized access
• Network security, which involves securing the communication channels between cloud-based assets and users; 
• Threat management, which allows cloud engineers to monitor and respond to potential threats to cloud-based assets, such as malware or denial-of-service attacks.

Cloud engineers have a variety of tools and technologies at their disposal to manage security. This includes firewalls, intrusion detection systems, and security information and event management (SIEM) systems. Combined, these technologies help engineers prevent unauthorized access to cloud-based assets, monitor network traffic to identify potential threats, and collect and analyze security-related data from multiple sources, providing a comprehensive view of potential security issues.

Cloud Architecture

Cloud architecture, which refers to the design and structure of cloud-based systems, components, and services, is another essential skill for cloud engineers to have in 2023. 

Some of the key principles of cloud architecture include scalability, availability, reliability, and performance. These principles ensure that the cloud system is able to remain operational in the event of failures or disruptions, handle workloads efficiently, perform consistently over time, and handle increasing amounts of traffic or data without compromising performance.

To achieve these key principles, cloud architects design systems that make use of the appropriate cloud-based services and resources. These might include compute resources like virtual machines, storage resources like object storage or block storage, or networking resources like virtual private clouds or load balancers. Cloud architects must also ensure that these resources are configured and optimized to meet the needs of the system they are designing.

Some of the key cloud architecture technologies and tools cloud engineers should be familiar with include:

• Infrastructure as code (IaC) tools, like Terraform
• Containerization platforms, particularly platforms like Docker or Kubernetes
• Serverless computing services, which allow developers to focus on writing code without worrying about underlying infrastructure.

Automation and Orchestration

As more companies move to the cloud, the complexity of cloud-based systems is increasing. This means that there are more moving parts to manage and deploy, which can be time-consuming and error-prone if done manually. Automation and orchestration skills are critical for managing these complexities. 

Cloud automation is the process of automating the deployment, scaling, and management of cloud-based systems. With cloud automation, tasks that would normally require manual intervention, such as provisioning servers or deploying code, can be automated, saving time and reducing the risk of human error.

Cloud orchestration takes this one step further by automating the management and coordination of complex cloud-based systems. With cloud orchestration, engineers can manage and coordinate the interactions between different cloud-based services and applications, making it easier to deploy and manage complex systems.

To become proficient in cloud automation and orchestration, engineers should have experience with scripting languages like Python or PowerShell, as well as knowledge of configuration management tools like Ansible or Puppet. Familiarity with cloud-based orchestration tools like Kubernetes or Docker Swarm is also important.

Cloud Cost Optimization

As companies move to the cloud, they’re realizing the benefits of cost savings and scalability. However, as cloud usage increases, so do the costs. Cloud computing can be expensive, and if not managed properly, costs can quickly spiral out of control.

That’s where cloud cost optimization comes in. It’s the process of optimizing cloud costs to ensure that organizations get the most value out of their cloud investments. With cloud cost optimization, engineers can identify areas where costs can be reduced or eliminated, while still ensuring that cloud-based systems are meeting the needs of the organization.

One important cost optimization principle is the use of reserved instances or committed use contracts. These allow organizations to commit to a certain amount of cloud usage over a period of time, which can result in significant cost savings.

Another important principle is the use of autoscaling. Autoscaling allows organizations to automatically increase or decrease resources based on demand, ensuring that they’re only paying for what they need. This can result in significant cost savings, especially during periods of low demand.

Engineers should also be familiar with cloud cost management tools, such as AWS Cost Explorer or Google Cloud Billing. These tools can help engineers identify areas where costs can be reduced or eliminated, and provide insights into cloud usage patterns and trends.

To become proficient in cloud cost optimization, engineers should have a deep understanding of cloud usage patterns and trends, as well as a strong understanding of cloud pricing models and cost management tools. Familiarity with scripting languages like Python or PowerShell can also be helpful with optimizing costs.

Cloud Migration

Cloud migration is the process of moving data, applications, and other business elements from an organization’s on-premises infrastructure to the cloud. It involves several phases, including assessment, planning, execution, and optimization, and it requires an in-depth understanding of both the current infrastructure and the target cloud environment.

One of the most critical cloud migration skills is the ability to assess the current infrastructure and determine which applications and workloads are best suited for migration. The assessment phase involves analyzing various factors, such as data security requirements, regulatory compliance, and performance metrics. A cloud engineer with migration skills can also identify any potential issues that may arise during migration, such as compatibility issues, data loss, and service disruptions.

Once the assessment phase is complete, the cloud engineer can begin the planning phase. This phase involves developing a detailed migration plan that includes timelines, resource requirements, and a risk management strategy. Cloud engineers should be able to help organizations choose the right cloud provider, select the appropriate migration tools, and develop a strategy for testing and validating the migration plan.

The execution phase is where the actual migration takes place. Cloud engineers oversee the migration process, monitor progress, and troubleshoot any issues that arise. They should also provide regular updates to stakeholders, manage any change requests, and ensure that the migration is completed on time and within budget.

Cloud Analytics

Cloud analytics is an important skill for cloud engineers because it allows them to extract valuable insights and knowledge from the data collected by cloud-based applications and systems. With the ability to harness the power of data, organizations can optimize their operations, make data-driven decisions, and gain a competitive advantage.

To put it simply, cloud analytics refers to the process of collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data generated by cloud-based systems. This data can include user behavior, performance metrics, and usage patterns, among other things. With cloud analytics, organizations can use this data to monitor their systems, detect issues and anomalies, and identify opportunities for improvement.

Some of the key cloud analytics tools and technologies that cloud engineers should be familiar with include cloud-based data warehouses such as Amazon Redshift and Google BigQuery, data visualization tools such as Tableau and PowerBI, cloud-based machine learning tools such as Amazon SageMaker and Google Cloud AI Platform, big data technologies such as Hadoop and Spark, as well as machine learning and AI.

In addition to these tools and technologies, cloud engineers should also be familiar with data governance and privacy regulations. Ensuring that data is secure, compliant, and properly managed is critical in the cloud environment and an important piece of the analytics puzzle.

Collaboration and Communication

Collaboration and communication are crucial skills for cloud engineers. The ability to work with other team members, communicate ideas effectively, and provide feedback can make or break a project. Cloud engineers need to be able to explain complex technical issues to technical and non-technical stakeholders, work with cross-functional teams, and coordinate with various departments to ensure that projects are delivered on time and within budget. This requires effective communication skills, the ability to listen actively, and the capacity to work in a team environment.

In addition, cloud engineers need to be skilled at providing feedback to other team members. This feedback may include suggesting improvements, identifying issues, or proposing new ideas. The ability to provide constructive feedback in a way that is both clear and non-confrontational is an essential component of collaboration.

Effective communication skills are also critical when working with non-technical stakeholders, such as business leaders, customers, and vendors. Cloud engineers must be able to explain complex technical concepts in a way that is understandable to these stakeholders. This requires the ability to communicate in plain language, present information clearly, and listen actively.

Key Takeaways

As you can see, cloud computing skills are becoming increasingly important for tech professionals as the demand for cloud services continues to grow. To succeed in this field, cloud engineers need to have a diverse set of skills that go beyond just technical expertise. 

If you’re a hiring manager, make sure to look for candidates who possess these skills, as they will be the ones who can help your organization fully harness the power of the cloud. And if you’re a tech professional interested in advancing your career in cloud computing, now is the time to start building your skills in these areas.

To learn more about the specific skills that are in demand in the cloud computing industry, check out HackerRank’s roles directory.

The post The 7 Most Important Cloud Engineering Skills in 2023 appeared first on HackerRank Blog.

In 2021, the size of the global cloud computing market was valued at $445.3 billion. And it’s expected to grow to $947.3 billion by 2026. That’s a blistering growth rate of 112.7 percent in just five years.

However, the tech industry is facing a huge deficit in the number of skilled cloud engineers available to build this growing industry. If left unchecked, this hiring gap could hinder the growth and innovation of the cloud computing industry writ large. 

In this post, we’ll break down the statistics, job requirements, and responsibilities of a career in cloud engineering.

Overview of the Duties of a Cloud Engineer

Companies of every size and industry are racing to the cloud. Cloud computing is a service that provides on-demand access to computer system resources without direct management or ownership by the party using the service. These services include computing power, data storage, platforms, infrastructure, and software.

Cloud engineers are IT professionals responsible for a company’s cloud computing infrastructure, including design, implementation, maintenance, and support.

Cloud engineers will work in a variety of cloud environments, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP).

On a more technical level, the core job responsibilities of cloud engineers include:

• Writing highly scalable, testable code
• Building cloud environments on cloud infrastructure platforms
• Configuring cloud infrastructure components including networking and security services
• Discovering and fixing programming bugs
• Presenting and demonstrating features to internal and external stakeholders
• Keeping up-to-date with advancements in technology
• Working in an agile environment

What Kinds of Companies Hire Cloud Engineers?

Any company that’s looking to build cloud infrastructure or migrate their existing systems to the cloud will need to hire cloud engineers. As companies of every size transition to the cloud, the industries that cloud engineers work in continue to expand.

This trend was already well underway, but it was dramatically accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic and prolonged global lockdowns. Overnight, a majority of the world’s work, education, and entertainment shifted online, leading to a dramatic spike in the demand for platforms, databases, and technologies supported by the cloud. This has left many companies struggling to find the cloud engineers they need to scale in a remote-first world. 

Retail, entertainment, software, consulting, financial services, defense, education, fintech, telecommunications, healthcare — the demand (and opportunity) for cloud engineering is nearly endless. 

In addition to the companies hiring engineers for their in-house teams, Microsoft, Amazon, and Google employ thousands of cloud engineers to work on their infrastructure as a service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS), and serverless computing environments.

Unsurprisingly, this growth in the demand and applications for cloud computing has had a direct impact on company hiring needs and the career outlook of cloud engineering.

In 2020, there were 775,022 cloud computing jobs posted, up 94% from 400,500 jobs posted just three years earlier. In comparison, all tech job postings grew around 20% during that period. That means the demand for cloud computing and engineering talent is growing nearly five times faster than the rest of the tech industry. 

It’s no understatement to say this explosion of cloud engineering demand has created one of the biggest talent needs in the tech industry.

This gap between supply and demand has had a direct impact on the companies unable to meet their hiring needs, keeping many businesses out of the cloud. As the cloud computing industry continues to grow, competition for great cloud talent is fierce and will be for the foreseeable future.

Types of Cloud Engineer Positions

The titles cloud engineers hold vary drastically, depending on their experience, education, and the company they work at. The title of a graduate from a coding bootcamp might look different than a candidate with a four-year degree. And the role of a cloud engineer in a five-person startup will be different than at a 5,000 person company.

At the beginning of their career, a cloud engineer will start out with an entry-level role, like Cloud Engineer I or Junior AWS Engineer. New cloud engineers will typically start their careers by working on internal or external project solutions along with systems and integration testing. They can expect to work in one of these roles for one to three years.

From there, they’ll have the opportunity to move into more senior-level roles with hands-on engineering experience, such as: 

• Senior Cloud Engineer
• Cloud Engineer II
• Cloud Engineering Manager
• Cloud Security Engineer
• Senior AWS Engineer
• Systems Engineer
• Cloud Developer
• Cloud Architect
• Network Engineer

While they spend several years honing their skills, their responsibilities expand to include taking ownership of projects, working independently in a team environment, and mentoring project team members. Senior cloud engineers might also choose to specialize in a particular technology or discipline, such as cloud security or DevOps.

With some experience under their belt, a cloud engineer often faces a crossroads in their career having to choose between two paths. 

The first path is to pivot into people and team management functions. Hiring, mentoring, resource planning and allocation, strategy, and operations become a larger component of the responsibilities of cloud engineers pursuing this career path. At the higher levels of an organization, these titles include:

• Director of Cloud Networking
• Cloud Operations Manager
• Director of Solutions Architecture
• Chief Information Officer (CIO)
• Chief Technology Officer (CTO)

The second possible career path is to continue as an individual contributor. Many cloud engineers opt to continue their careers as individual contributors, enjoying equally fulfilling careers and developing deeper technical expertise in various languages and frameworks.

The motivation behind this decision is that experienced cloud engineers aren’t necessarily interested in or qualified to be managing a team. And an engineer in an individual contributor role has the opportunity to focus on growing their technical skills and learning the newest emerging technologies.

Data is scarce on how this career decision will impact long-term earning potential. Career outlook for individual contributors and managers will also depend on a number of other factors, including industry, company size, and experience.

Salary Comparisons & Job Outlook

On average, cloud engineers tend to receive a salary significantly higher than the national average in their country.

For example, in the U.S. the average salary in 2020 was $53,400. In contrast, the average base salary for cloud engineers in the U.S. is $114,323 to $130,977. That’s 114 to 145 percent more than the national average.

Junior cloud engineers can expect to occupy a lower salary band at the beginning of their careers. In contrast, senior positions provide a higher average compensation, though data for this specific salary band is hard to find. Industry and company size also affect the salary band dramatically. Historically, though, geography has had a significant impact on the compensation of technical talent — and that includes cloud engineers. 

Cloud Engineering Skills

Technical Skills

Cloud engineers use a range of technologies to build cloud-based platforms, infrastructure, and applications. 

A core requirement of cloud engineering is expertise in the technologies offered by cloud-hosting providers. These include, to name a few:

• AWS
• Azure
• GCP
• IBM Cloud
• Oracle Cloud

Recruiters and hiring managers who are hiring cloud engineers should look for in-demand competencies with the specific services and products offered by these platforms. An AWS cloud engineer, for example, might be familiar with Amazon cloud products such as Glue, Lake Formation, Redshift, Athena, MSK, and Kinesis.

Many cloud engineering roles require knowledge of data-oriented and object-oriented languages such as Java, Ruby, Python, or Clojure. Some roles also require familiarity with a general programming language, such as C, C+, C#, or Go. 

Depending on the role, software engineers might also work with a number of other tools:

• Databases (SQL, MySQL, NoSQL)
• Message brokers (RabbitMQ, ActiveMQ, Kafka)
• Big data frameworks (Apache Hadoop, Apache Spark)
• Familiarity with web services and APIs:
  • XML (Extensible Markup Language)
  • SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol)
  • WSDL (Web Services Description Language)
  • UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery and Integration)

Some cloud engineers will specialize in DevOps, a set of practices that combines software development and IT operations. Core DevOps skills include:

• Container management software (Docker, Kubernetes)
• CI/CD tools (Gitlab, Jenkins, Nexus)
• Linux Fundamentals And Scripting
• Infrastructure as Code (IaC)

Security and Compliance

Some cloud engineers specialize in keep computing resources and data secure, operational, and compliant. Cloud cybersecurity engineers typically need an understanding of cloud cybersecurity to create cloud backup strategies in preparation for outages, natural disasters, and cyberattacks. They also need the skills to identify regulations and guidelines for compliance.

Soft Skills

Technical competency alone isn’t enough to succeed in a cloud engineering role. Mathematical, analytical, and problem-solving skills are a must in any technical role. And soft skills are even more critical in a digital-first or digital-only environment.

Employers may put even more stock into engineers with strong soft skills, such as:

• Time management
• Communication
• Project management
• Problem solving

Communication skills, in particular, are critical to cloud engineering. Cloud engineers often work in client-facing or consulting roles that require them to communicate complex information to stakeholders in other departments or companies. The ability to turn technical subject matter into easy-to-understand solutions is highly valuable to cloud engineers — and the teams that employ them.

Certifications

All of the major cloud providers offer certification courses to cloud engineers, including AWS, Azure, and GCP. In addition to providing training in the platforms, certifications also serve as a credential for cloud engineers. For roles requiring experience with cloud providers, having a certification in the appropriate platform is a mandatory or nice-to-have qualification. 

Experience & Education

After competency, the most important qualification for cloud engineers is experience. On-the-job experience and training is a critical requirement for many employers.

Then, there’s the question of education. The education requirements for cloud engineering positions vary widely. Many employers still require cloud engineering candidates to have four-year degrees. Some might even expect graduate-level degrees.

But competition for skilled cloud engineers is fierce, and it’s common for job openings requiring degrees to go unfilled. There are simply not enough engineers with degrees to fill thousands of open roles out there. Companies looking to hire cloud engineers will have access to a much larger pool of talent and achieve their cloud initiatives if they recognize other forms of education and experience. 

Resources for Hiring Cloud Engineers

Developer Hiring Solutions

How to Assess Cloud Engineering Candidates

The post What Does a Cloud Engineer Do? Job Overview & Skill Expectations appeared first on HackerRank Blog.