Global Data Center Talent Shortage

In today’s world where everything is in the cloud, data center companies are experiencing explosive growth requiring new construction, modernization of existing infrastructures and management of current operations. The upsurge in consumption of public cloud services led by the big three; Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Google Cloud Platform (GCP), has created new challenges for data center companies. A survey of data center operator roles found that 47% are struggling to attract talent to fill open roles, with 32% of respondents stating they have difficulty retaining existing talent. A fifth (20%) attribute this to workers being poached by rivals, while 12% say staff have left for other industries.¹

With the rapid growth in the number and size of facilities, data center companies struggle to function efficiently. With this growth, there is increased demand for more operators and technical staff to support the ongoing operations of the data center. Challenged with staffing shortages, these data centers are finding that the right talent is either underskilled or not available to fill their open positions, leaving the data center operators with more jobs than resources to fill them.

Further compounding the talent issues being experienced by the data center operators, many of the legacy computer operators are entering retirement in the next few years and will cause additional issues with workforce capacity. Those that do not retire will find themselves operating in a global market that values their skillset — which will offer them opportunities for increased pay, either with their current company or a new one.

The speed of technological advances adds to these challenges. Infrastructure services have transformed with the cloud and the modern data center requires skilled staff with up-to-date training, college degrees, specific certifications and/or equivalent experience.

There is hope for these data center companies; however, they must be willing to recognize that finding and retaining talent is not what it used to be. Understanding the commitment needed to find and upskill talent, develop career paths and provide compensation that is in line with the market is critical to their success. One approach that is delivering results is working directly or with partners to identify individuals in underserved communities.

The cloud is integral to everyone’s daily lives. The adoption and accessibility of cloud technologies globally is driving the need for more data centers and more technically skilled workers to operate them. There is an opportunity for new-to-industry workers to fill the current and future gap that is being created by this increasing demand.

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1. Uptime Institute® survey. UII-43 v1.3P published January 1, 2021, last updated April 5, 2021.