5G-fueled hyper connectivity is expanding data processing at lightning speeds. But are technology leaders and engineers ready to transform to tap into the plethora of cutting-edge opportunities that awaits them?

Maybe not. According to a Forbes Insights survey, a mere 1% of engineers think their data centers are ahead of the curve. Most IT professionals in fact say it’s difficult to manage today’s bandwidth needs.

But this means good news in terms of opportunities in data center management as future data centers will require adequate processing power and an ever-evolving workforce ready to take on the challenges of computing.

• A market report by Vertiv titled Data Center 2025 says that organizations could lose up to 16% of their infrastructure workforce in the next five years, a new age brain drain of sorts.

The constantly evolving environment of data centers is creating a wave of new opportunities.

• In its Global Data Center Staffing Forecast 2021-2025, released in January, data center advisory service firm Uptime Institute predicted data-center staff requirements will grow globally to nearly 2.3 million by 2025.

• The Uptime report also says that enterprise data centers will continue to employ a large number of staff, but cloud data-center staff will outnumber them in four years. And that in 2020, 50% of data center owners or operators globally reported having difficulty finding qualified candidates for open jobs, compared to 38% two years prior.

In short, the time to skill up for a career in data centers is now.

Here are three job roles that will be in demand at data centers

In modern data centers, resources are shared across multiple applications, which require new infrastructure design skills to ensure application performance remains high. A data-center architect requires knowledge of the physical data center in terms of power, cooling, real estate, and so on. Architects help determine the layout of the facility as well as internal design involving racks, flooring, and wiring. If done poorly, the job can have an enormous negative impact on workflow.

1. Data Center Architect

There are multiple avenues for jobs in data-center security in terms of both physical and cybersecurity. In times past, physical security was rudimentary and included a bunch of keypads at the most. Today there is a lot of innovation including AI-enabled cameras, iris readers and facial-recognition systems. Cybersecurity has also transitioned to machine learning-based systems.

2. Data-center Security

Network engineers who work in data centers need to become familiar with new concepts associated with network fabrics in terms of operating systems, open-source network platforms, and so on. They need to understand how to increase scalability while simplifying network operations.

3. Data-center Networking

Hardy Racks is a server and network rack manufacturer based in India, delivering high-quality data center accessories, which are crucial to maintaining the efficiency of workflow in data centers.