Five cloud computing skills to propel your career in 2018

These days, the cloud computing job market evolves just as rapidly as the technology itself.

In 2018, businesses big and small will look to either on board new IT staff, or advance the skills of existing staff, around a number of key IT trends. Some of these trends spotlight technologies such as machine learning and serverless computing, while others involve more bread-and-butter cloud infrastructure management skills, especially those related to hybrid and multi-cloud.

Public cloud adoption is expected to climb significantly over the coming years, but enterprises still primarily choose the best execution venue for their workloads, whether that's public cloud, private cloud or a combination of the two, said Jay Lyman, principal analyst at 451 Research.

"[Enterprises want] apps and workloads to run on the best infrastructure based on cost, performance, data sovereignty, geographic location and regulatory and compliance issues," Lyman said.

This flexibility comes at a cost, however, as IT teams must tediously integrate and manage various cloud platforms. As a result, many enterprises will fill cloud computing jobs with architects or admins who can bridge disparate infrastructures, and effectively manage workloads as they move between them.

Meanwhile, more cutting-edge technologies such as machine learning, containerization, and cloud-native apps continue to reshape the cloud computing job market, and show no signs of slowing down.

To align with these technology shifts, many cloud-focused IT professionals must build or hone their skills around areas such as data science, AI and container orchestration -- or risk being left behind.

Here are five in-demand cloud computing skills to advance your career in 2018.