What skills are IT professionals looking for? What are the most in-demand jobs?

According to the 2018 Global Knowledge IT Skills and Salary Report the answers are the same: cloud.

The list of highest-paying certifications is a popular section of our annual Report. (Spoiler alert) AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate ranks first in North America with a salary of $117.773. It is also ranked fifth globally at $87.463. AWS-certified IT professionals in the U.S.A and Canada earn nearly 30% more than the industry average for certified professionals.

AWS Certification is a high-paying job, with salaries that tend to be higher than other cloud certifications. But there's more to it than dollars and cents.

To maximize your cloud investment, you need to develop skills

We asked five Global Knowledge AWS instructors to share their thoughts about our findings.

Our experts agreed on the importance of certification and training, especially in relation to AWS. "Training jumpstarts your journey to the cloud and hopefully gives you enough guidance to avoid making foolish mistakes." Certification is intended to ensure that there is a common level in expertise so that students and organizations don't constantly'reinvent the wheel'," Jon Gallagher, who holds both AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional and AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional certifications.

Richard Jones, AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional, was more direct in his response. "Well, it is one thing to use AWS. It's quite another to use it effectively in a way that creates a structured, secure, manageable, and automated environment. All of these are covered in AWS Training courses."

There's also the fusion between heroism, validation. Dan Moore added that, "Depending on the student's level, AWS Training can let someone save a day by learning about Amazon [Web Services] services that can significantly reduce operational efforts. AWS Certifications can open doors to jobs, and employers know this." Dan Moore has three AWS Certifications at the Associate level: AWS Certified Solutions Administrator; AWS Certified Developer; AWS Certified SysOps Administration.

Employers are more aware of the work involved in certification and training, which leads to higher financial returns for those who seek expertise in AWS technologies. Chad Smith, AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate, said it best: "Certification proves that you know how you do the job. And AWS [Certification] provides that better than most because you don't just memorize the documentation and then pass." These credentials require practice, study, and hands-on experience before sitting for the exam.

Our experts also saw how certification and training can help individuals and companies with cloud cost optimization. "Cloud economics is different from traditional IT project or infrastructure economics. Chris Doucette, who holds all associate-level certifications, AWS Certified Solutions Architect Developer, SysOps Administrator, said that project success is dependent on understanding the differences and architecting cloud solution to meet financial goals.

One expert shared some practical advice. Dan Moore said, "It's all servers underneath." "It can appear like magic at times, but it's actually just servers underneath. Sometimes the abstraction will bite you." AWS is a great way to work. discover more here.