Organizations are hindered by a large multicloud skills gap, according to the 2023 State of Cloud Report from Pluralsight.

The findings underscore how critical cloud skills development is for organizations to ensure the multicloud reward outweighs the risk.

A Hasty Rush to Multicloud

In 2023, multicloud strategies are becoming increasingly commonplace, with more than 65% of organizations currently operating within multicloud environments and another 20% saying they're actively pursuing an additional cloud platform for their cloud environment.

However, in the rush toward multicloud architectures, many organizations are finding themselves underprepared and lacking resources to succeed. The report found that:

■ Only 20% of organizations have defined a cloud security strategy while another 28% are working to build one.

■ To compound the problem, only 9% have extensive experience with more than one cloud provider.

There is good news, though — 71% of leaders expect their cloud budgets to increase over the next 12 months and 74% of leaders expect their cloud skills development budgets to increase in parallel.

Organizations should be strategically leveraging cloud skills development if they want to build a culture of cloud and maximize their cloud investments

"Learners are struggling to keep up with such a fast-paced cloud evolution," said Drew Firment, Chief Cloud Strategist at Pluralsight. "As a result, most organizations still lack the maturity to operationalize multicloud computing, and this year's research findings make that clear. Organizations should be strategically leveraging cloud skills development if they want to build a culture of cloud and maximize their cloud investments."

The Need for Multicloud Skills Development

Organizations on the path to multicloud need to invest in skills development — but where should they begin?

The report reveals the top in-demand skills and skills gaps across cloud roles in 2023:

■ Artificial intelligence and machine learning skills are the most in-demand cloud skills (23%) in 2023, up from 16% in 2023. In last year's report, data analytics skills were the most in-demand (33%), but fewer technologists (18%) ranked it as an in-demand skill in 2023.

■ The largest cloud skills gaps exist in data, analytics, engineering, and storage (42%), followed by security and governance (37%). In 2022, automation and DevOps were cited as the most glaring skills gaps (30%).

As data and AI-based solutions continue to dominate the tech landscape, it's increasingly important for cloud practitioners to be fluent in these skill sets. The report makes it clear that these skill areas will continue to be a huge focus in 2023. To bridge these skills gaps, organizations must lean into developing their technology teams so they are equipped to keep pace with the rapidly changing tech landscape

Methodology: Survey results from more than 1,000 technologists and leaders in the United States, Europe, Australia, and India on the most current trends and challenges in cloud strategy and learning.