What Is a Cloud Engineer?

Cloud engineering is the practice of designing, implementing, and maintaining software systems that operate effectively in cloud computing environments. It’s a growing field with many sub-disciplines that focus on one aspect of cloud engineering or another.

Cloud engineers need to understand the various elements of a cloud environment as well as have knowledge about how to build software that takes advantage of those elements.

In this blog post, we’ll give you a general overview of what it takes to become a cloud engineer. Plus, we’ll provide you with some helpful resources for training and landing your first job as a cloud engineer. Let’s get started.

What Does A Cloud Engineer Do?

Cloud engineers are responsible for ensuring that the applications they design run efficiently and effectively in cloud computing environments. This includes designing and building those applications as well as managing and monitoring the environment they run in.

Depending on the company and the role, you may be responsible for developing software using particular enterprise software development methodologies and best practices. Cloud engineers typically work in agile teams, so collaboration is important.

Cloud engineers may also perform project management and other general engineering functions, such as DevOps and testing. This includes automating delivery processes and maintaining the continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines.

They may also be responsible for managing cloud-based systems that organizations use to store and access data and perform other computing tasks. Their work may involve designing and maintaining virtual networks that connect the systems that perform these tasks.

Responsibilities of a Cloud Engineer

Cloud computing is a dynamic field, and the responsibilities of cloud engineers change frequently. A successful cloud engineer is someone who can quickly adapt to changing demands and stay on top of current technology.

Here are just some of the responsibilities that come with being a cloud engineer:

Designing and building cloud computing systems: You may be responsible for designing and building cloud computing systems for organizations or for designing and building software that runs in a cloud environment. This may include devising network topologies and architectures that support the systems you design and ensuring that the systems are available and accessible to people who need them.
Maintaining cloud computing systems: Cloud computing systems may need to be maintained to keep them functioning properly and to meet the needs of their users. This may involve monitoring systems for potential problems and responding to issues as they arise. It may also include performing routine maintenance tasks, such as patching systems or replacing hardware.
Managing data in a cloud environment: Cloud computing systems often handle large amounts of data. These systems may need to be designed to ensure that they can handle the volume of data they are expected to store. They may also need to be managed to ensure that they store data in an appropriate manner. This may involve establishing policies and procedures for data management as well as monitoring data to ensure that it is stored appropriately.
Communicating and collaborating: As with most jobs, communication and collaboration are important parts of being a cloud engineer. You will likely work with other engineers, designers, managers, and clients throughout your job. You may also need to communicate with people outside your organization, such as vendors who provide cloud computing systems or contractors who work on improving your systems. Collaboration may include jointly designing systems or software and jointly managing systems with other engineers.

Key Skills For Cloud Engineers

Cloud engineers must have a thorough understanding of software development, computer science, internet architecture, and databases. Here are some of the other key skills for cloud engineers.

Networking: Cloud computing systems typically involve a large number of components that need to communicate with each other and with people who use them. These include virtual networks, databases, and load balancers. A good cloud engineer understands these components and the connections between them. This includes knowing how they interoperate with each other and with legacy systems that organizations may still use.
Big Data: Big Data is an important part of most cloud computing systems. A good cloud engineer understands how to create databases that store large amounts of data in an efficient manner. They also understand how to query and extract data from these databases. This includes knowing how data is structured and using that knowledge to derive meaning from the data in databases.

A successful cloud engineer must be able to manage operational risk as well as understand business risk and strategy. This is a fast-paced job that requires constant learning, innovation, and problem-solving skills.

Networking: The backbone of cloud engineering

As mentioned above, networking is a key skill for cloud engineers. Knowing how to build and maintain the networks that transport data throughout your systems will help to improve performance and reduce risk.

Networking is an ever-changing field, and you’ll need to stay on top of trends and developments in order to stay relevant. It’s essential for cloud engineers to keep up with new developments and technologies in the industry.

You will likely need a degree in computer science or cloud engineering. Some of the most in-demand skills include programming (Python, Java, etc), service products (Docker), and software engineering.

Cloud engineers often use open source software, so familiarity with some of these projects can be helpful. But you need to be familiar with cloud platforms, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud Platform (GCP).

Big Data: Knowing what’s happening in your cloud

As data becomes an increasingly important part of cloud computing systems, being able to understand and manipulate it becomes critical. This is especially true for people building and deploying machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) systems.

A good cloud engineer understands how to manipulate data, such as sorting and filtering it based on certain parameters or algorithms. They also understand how to store data in an appropriate manner. A good cloud engineer should also understand how to make data available to people who need it.

This includes understanding how to query databases and expose data in a format that people can use. It may also involve gaining insights from the data that your systems collect. This may include using data analytics to derive meaningful insights from the data you collect.

Conclusion

Cloud engineering is an ever-changing field that requires engineers to keep up with current trends and new technologies. It’s important to have a solid understanding of how to design, build, and maintain cloud computing systems.

It’s also important to understand the data that flows through these systems and how it is stored. Although cloud engineering is a growing field, it’s important to choose a direction that aligns with your interests and career goals.

You can begin by researching sub-disciplines within cloud engineering. From there, you can identify skills you need to develop and ways to get experience in the field.

What Is a Cloud Engineer?