Case study: Cloud Native Computing Foundation
State of Open: The UK in 2023
Phase 3: “Skills or Bust”
Chris Aniszczyk, Chief Technology Officer
The Cloud Native Computing Foundation is a leader in Open Source. It uses Open Source Software tstack to deploy applications as microservices, packing each part into its own container. CNCF advocates for expanding Open Source skills, they argue that even with foundational skills, you immediately have an opportunity to change your whole career trajectory as jobs in Open Source are in high demand. They offer training and certifications for everyone, regardless of background, means or knowledge.
Part of the Linux Foundation, the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF), is a prominent leader in Open Source with over 850 participating organisations, including the world’s largest public and private cloud companies. It uses an Open Source Software stack to deploy applications as microservices, packing each part into its own container. Ahead of the curve, CNCF brings together industry bodies and experts to create a collaborative platform that supports knowledge sharing and the development of Open Source adoption. In a candid conversation with Chris, their CTO, we spoke about how organisations collaboratively can better shape the culture and skills with the Open Source world.
Why do we need to expand Open Source skills?
The world of technology, along with its workforce is forever changed; most of the tech we rely on in our daily lives is powered by Open Source software, be it ordering a meal or listening to a song – almost everything we use these days touches a CNCF project and is using Kubernetes behind the scenes. As Chris says, “Our biggest need in our community from our member companies is a need to hire people – there’s a skill shortage when it comes to cloud native talent, especially talent that understands multi clouds.” Because of the demand of the sector, CNCF has invested in certification and training programs to help people grow. In this way, people don’t have to have the strongest engineering or formal computer science background, the training allows you to get started by understanding basic Linux skills as a baseline. Even with foundational skills, you immediately have an opportunity to change your whole career trajectory as jobs in Open Source are in high demand.
Building a community: shaping today’s workforce
CNCF has taken the lead in shaping the workforce of the tech sector as it offers online programs, webinars, live streams, certifications, and detailed training. As Chris says, “The market for cloud native skills is just huge, and so under-served. I get a call every couple of days from a company complaining that they can’t hire folks, so we’re trying our best to train the next generation of cloud developers.”
CNCF offers training and certifications for everyone, regardless of background, means or knowledge. The best way to gain practical pragmatic skills is to contribute to Open Source projects. The CNCF mentoring program allows anyone to join and be mentored by a professional. In this program, participants “get paid a stipend to work three months and to contribute and be mentored by a professional, resulting in great opportunities. Everyone that goes to this mentorship will get a job offer or they get an internship offer. So the options are there. People just need to know about them and take the opportunity.” He points to the experience of a chef from Indonesia who had little computing experience apart from video games. “It took six months of training and he was able to change the trajectory of his career.”