The proliferation of data center and cloud use across the business world is creating enormous opportunity for IT professionals.  In the banking industry, for example, 64 percent of activity currently takes place in the cloud, having doubled since last year. 

As a result of this dramatic growth, IT is evolving from a maintenance role into a strategic and revenue-generating aspect of daily business.  U.S. News, for instance, named the positions of Software Developer and Computer Systems Analyst first and second on its list of the Top 100 Jobs of 2014, respectively.   As more businesses move their operations into the cloud, which and in doing so rely heavily on data and colocation centers, businesses are recognizing the inherent importance of having access to IT leaders that can produce profits.

This means that the role of IT leaders in business is in a state of flux.  Positions once focused primarily on IT and digital savvy are transforming to include customer-facing responsibilities—like the Chief Information Officer (CIO).  While some industry experts are questioning the future of existence of the CIO, others suggest that the role is simply evolving.  In fact, recent research indicates that the workload and complexity for CIOs in fields such as healthcare is actually expanding—and will continue to do so in the future.

Moving forward, as the cloud takes center stage in the business world, it is imperative that businesses fill in-demand roles with experts that can oversee long-term technical projects while managing operations, people, budgets, consultants, outside vendors and unionized workforces at the same time. 

This creates added pressure on hiring professionals, who now have the additional challenge of identifying the innate business qualities and highly technical abilities that competent professionals possess to fit this new ‘back-office to boardroom’ niche.  This challenge is further compounded by the necessity to not only onboard, but also retain and nurture these individuals to make the most of a company’s initial investment.  The result of a bad hiring decision could cost a company an average of 30% of the professional’s first-year potential earning, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.  As the median salary for CIOs tops six figures, this can be quite a substantial loss for any employer.  That is why this level of strategic hiring requires a specialist. 

J. Patrick and Associates (JP+A) is unique from other executive recruiting firms in that it holds all of the tools necessary to link the best companies with the most qualified industry talent.  JP+A works directly with hiring managers and executives in industry-leading Colocation and Data Center infrastructure firms, Cloud or Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)-based product and service providers, and various other technology sector companies to identify the most in-demand skills and current professional requirements for Data Center Management, Security, Storage, and other Cloud/SaaS/Virtualization-related placement. 

For more information about J. Patrick and Associates, click here.