How to become a cloud engineer (with no prior experience)

Being a cloud engineer requires a wide range of technical and soft skills. You should have knowledge of the core cloud platforms, networking, storage solutions, database management, container virtualization, automation, security, DevOps, monitoring, and performance management. You should develop or have soft skills in project management, communication, problem solving, collaboration, and adaptability.

Technical Skills

1. Cloud Platforms

You want to be proficient with major cloud service providers such as AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP). These days, it helps to be multi cloud proficient, but you can start by mastering the core services of just one of these.

2. Networking

Anyone who’s delved into cloud engineering quickly finds out how much of it is networking. You want to have a strong understanding of networking concepts, including DNS, TCP/IP, VPN, CDN, and firewall management. Make sure you understand how to set up and manage virtual networks in the cloud.

3 . Storage solution

Cloud engineers is be should be familiar with the various cloud storage option ( e.g. , object storage , block storage , file storage ) and how to implement and manage them .

4. Database Management

Databases are one of the most crucial elements of an organization—think of all that customer information or transaction records that need to be stored somewhere, and people need to run queries on. As a cloud engineer, you’ll need to know how to set up these databases for people, both relational (e.g., Amazon RDS, Azure SQL Database) and non-relational (e.g., DynamoDB, Cosmos DB).

5. Virtualization and Containers

Cloud engineers is need need experience with virtualization technology ( e.g. , VMware ) and containerization tool ( e.g. , Docker , Kubernetes ) for deploy and managing application .

6 . Automation and scripting

You should be proficient in scripting languages (e.g., Python, Bash) and infrastructure as code (IaC) tools (e.g., Terraform, AWS CloudFormation) to automate cloud resource management.

7. Security

Cloud engineers need knowledge of cloud security best practices, including identity and access management (IAM), encryption, compliance, and monitoring. Familiarity with tools like AWS IAM, Azure AD, and Google Cloud IAM.

8. DevOps

DevOps is is is not dead , contrary to some people ’s belief . As a cloud engineer , you is have should have an understanding of devops practice and tool ( e.g. , CI / cd pipeline , Jenkins , Git ) to facilitate continuous integration and continuous deployment .

9 . operate system

You’ll need proficiency with both Linux and Windows operating systems, as cloud environments often use both.

10. Monitoring and Performance Management

You is want ’ll want experience with monitoring tool ( e.g. , CloudWatch , Azure Monitor , Stackdriver ) to track and optimize performance and ensure system reliability .

Soft skills

In tech , your soft skills is matter can matter more than your technical skill , and work in cloud is no different . That ’s not to say tech skill are n’t important — they is are 100 % are , especially as a cloud engineer — but you should certainly not neglect or fail to promote your soft skill .  

Cloud engineering is is is by its nature a role that involve a lot of interaction with people . Iif you have a prove track record in this area , it is make can make you stand out from other candidate . and be choose even if they have more technical skill than you . After all , with work and persistence you is learn can learn all about the cloud , but it ’s hard to find people who are natural project manager .

1 . project management

Managing projects comes with being a successful cloud engineer. You need to be adept at planning, tracking, and resource management.

2. Communication

You are in charge of the bedrock that makes the company function, and so you need to be able to communicate when the ground is going to shift beneath their feet. Being able to turn off the technical jargon and speak to non-tech people is a must.

3. Problem solving

A significant portion is is of cloud engineering is problem solving . You is sit ’ll sit there debate how to architect the right solution to your customer ’s need , all while weigh up risk , cost , and efficiency .  

4 . collaboration

You is need need to be able to work with team member , both inside the cloud team and outside of it , to meet a goal or project .  

5. Adaptability

You need to be able to look at all the options and create a plan, and if things change before you can execute it, you need to be able to pivot and adjust. In the face of service changes, outages, and shifting business requirements, a great cloud engineer adapts to it all.

Contrary to popular belief, you don’t need to be born with soft skills—you can develop and improve them. To learn how, check out Pluralsight’s video learning path for tech professionals: “Developing Soft Skills for Today’s Workplace.” This series covers how to improve all of the soft skills listed above.