You can't be a "one-trick pony" in the cloud world

Demand for legacy skills is falling as companies move to the cloud. Retaining staff through retraining is critical during and after a digital transformation

Moving legacy systems and applications to the cloud is one of the most desirable outcomes of any digital transformation, helping firms to reduce their reliance on dated hardware and software - and skills. However, it's far from being as easy as a simple lift-and-shift.

Discussing the issue at Computing's recent Cloud & Infrastructure Summit, panelists talked about the need to retrain existing staff who are being kept on because they know how to work with existing systems.

Moving old apps to the cloud may bring some short-term benefits but won't solve long-term challenges; maintenance will still exist, said John Lyons, head of cloud and hosting at Zen Internet.

"Ultimately, a lot of legacy is about maintaining applications," he said. "You might have a critical line of business application that's been there for 15 or 20 years, and the people who wrote it are long gone. That's where your legacy is. If you just lift and shift that, you're going to have to maintain it and you'll have the same challenges you had previously."

In a situation like the above, a company should give thought to completely rewriting the application to help it to run in the cloud, or moving to something like SaaS, Lyons believes. It takes time and money, but the savings will make up for any initial costs.

Mark Clarke, cloud engineer at the Royal Opera House, said that retraining legacy staff is a key part of any cloud migration. He has first-hand knowledge of the process, having moved into IT after 18 years as an investment banker.

"Old dogs can learn new tricks… It is possible; you don't have to be 21 years old and wear an anorak and have acne. You can be slightly more mature and learn some new skills and be part of this world."

It is important now to have multiple capabilities in a single person, said John Abel, Oracle's VP of cloud technology for the UK, Ireland and Israel. If you don't help legacy staff to retrain and gain new skills, "You are failing as an employer," he said. "You've got to make people realise that they're valuable to the company. I don't meet many people who want to be engineered out."

Ajwat Hasan, infrastructure and cloud architect at the Financial Conduct Authority, had the last word. While he agreed that "You need to have a legacy system skillset if you're maintaining a legacy system," he added:

"You can't only be an expert in one thing. You're not just a Java developer, or a Byte developer; you have to know other things. It's becoming much easier now to gain new skills and new knowledge… There no excuse now for being a one-trick pony."