Bolstering the IT workforce of the future

CEO Dr Anton Ravindran shares his thoughts and the Training and Certification Organizations' role in industry 4.0.

For someone who has been in the IT industry for three decades, Dr Anton Ravindran, CEO of GICT Training, said that for nearly a decade now, cloud computing adoption has been experiencing exponential growth globally and certainly in Singapore.

“Developments in the Cloud space has been relentlessly growing. Research studies have found that 90% of organisations will be using some form of cloud computing services in the next two years and 49% of organizations have adopted a cloud-first approach for deploying net new applications. 451 Research predicts the cloud computing market to reach $53.3 billion in 2021 – up from $28.1 billion in 2017,” he explained.

Cloud’s role in IOT
This growth and progress is attributable to open-source technologies, Kubernetes and CNCF amongst other developments, added Dr Anton, who has been with multinationals such as IBM, CA, Singalab (IBM and NCB JV) and Sun Microsystems in the past in technical and management capacities, and is a serial entrepreneur now. “The cloud is fast becoming the foundation for IOT that uses data at the edge of the network. These IOT devices are beginning to use AI to derive insights. Going forward, we will experience more natural and intelligent interactions with computers in the Cloud.”

With the growing proliferation of IOT devices, edge computing and fog computing will continue to develop and become part of this ecosystem, a bright sign when it comes to handling tons of data and bandwidth latency-related issues. IOT devices can rely on Cloud for storing all the processed information whilst edge computing will play a role in balancing the workload in processing the voluminous data and the growing need to draw instantaneous insights at the edges.

However, one of the key challenges organisations are faced with is lack of skills. Aside from a global shortage of skills in cloud computing, data science/big data, AI, IOT and cyber security, the industry will require experts in mathematics and statistics as data becomes one of the most important assets of any business.

Local universities have introduced more programmes that cater to the growing demand for applied skills in these areas. GICT Training has been a pioneer in the ASEAN, South Asian and Middle East region in offering open-source technology based and vendor neutral training on Cloud Computing for the past 10 years, with training and certification in Business Analytics, Data Science, IOT, AI and Blockchain.

Plugging the skills gap
In Singapore, BCG predicts public cloud deployment to generate $41.09b (US$30b) for the country’s GDP between 2019 and 2023 and create nearly 22,000 jobs, particularly 8,000 in digital and technology-related roles.

To qualify for these highly sought after tech positions, they need to acquire applied knowledge and skills in these key technology areas of the future. In Singapore, initiatives and grants by IMDA and other government organizations, such as WDA and SSG, extend grants and funding for Singaporeans to pursue training programmes in these technologies.

GICT Training aims to plug the skills gap in the region by offering programmes through an Authorised Training Partner Network. These programmes have been mapped to Singapore’s National Infocomm Framework (NICF) and are endorsed by IMDA under the CITREP + funding program for eligible participants in Singapore.

Intelligent Cloud
Aside from cloud, Dr Anton noted that both IOT and AI are growing at breakneck speed. Being connected and online is rapidly growing and becoming pervasive. With 5G network, the connectivity will be faster with enormous capacity. Dr Anton sees that, in the not so distant future, every device will simply be connected to the Cloud and the Cloud will become more intelligent as Machine Learning becomes more infused into software, process and systems.

“According to Merrill Lynch, the robotics and AI solutions market will reach US$153b by 2020. The same study found that the adoption of AI and robotics will result in boosting productivity by 30% in many industries, while simultaneously manufacturing organizations will be able to save on labour costs by 18-30%,” he explained.
When asked about cloud’s heightened adoption particularly in the accounting, legal and manufacturing sectors, Dr Anton noted that businesses are increasingly becoming accustomed to the “pay-per-use” cloud billing model, and now look upon IT investments as an operational cost, rather than a fixed cost. This allows them to focus their expenditure on their core business without the need to invest in infrastructure and on dedicated IT teams to support and maintain the technology and applications.

To meet the growing demand for highly skilled experts in these fields, GICT Training shall continue to develop additional content, courseware and certification programmes in key technology areas as well as on blockchain. The CEO shared that the academy will be introducing more digitised content and online programmes for the global audience in 2020.