Cloud Engineers

The duties of cloud engineers vary based on their employer, level of education, and other factors, but the majority perform the following tasks: work with cloud architects and other IT professionals to plan, design, develop, maintain, and operate cloud systems and applications; troubleshoot incidents, identify root causes, fix problems, and document solutions; and collaborate with computer security professionals to develop software and hardware systems to protect cloud infrastructure from hacking and other types of cyberattacks. They also create disaster recovery and business continuity plans to prevent data loss; develop and implement policies for the use of cloud services; and educate and train work teams or clients regarding new cloud-based initiatives or technologies.

Cloud engineers may also develop new cloud architecture for clients. In this work environment, they first assess an organization’s information technology infrastructure and explore options for moving some or all of it to the cloud. They meet with the company’s executives to determine their IT needs and business goals regarding cloud infrastructure and usage and then make suggestions on how the client can save money and time by migrating some or all of its systems to the cloud. They also present design proposals for new cloud infrastructure. Once a plan is approved, the engineer works with programmers, computer security professionals, and other IT workers to migrate his or her client’s system to the cloud and build new cloud infrastructure. They configure computing, networking, and security services to ensure that they work together properly and continue to test and monitor these components until the migration and new cloud infrastructure development process is completed.