Cloud computing's naysayers encourage misplaced fears that IT careers are threatened by cloud adoption. Don't believe it. The economic argument for clouds as career opportunities is clear; the need for insightful expertise to realize the cloud's full potential is becoming widely recognized.

But when it comes to rebutting cynical FUD, theory is nowhere near as strong as practice—and the practice of IT is clearly moving cloudwards, as witness this current job posting:

Job Title Project Manager
Location Arlington, VA
Position Id 5788

Job Description
Resolvit is looking for a full time employee to work as a Project Manager at our client site in Rosslyn, VA. The successful candidate will utilize their practical experience to manage the development and deployment of ad hoc enhancements and changes to the recently deployed enterprise wide CRM tool (Salesforce.com). A major conversion from Seibel was done and there are many new opportunities for a project manager to get control of, prioritize, and manage to success.

Duties:

· Develop detailed project plans to include timelines, resource allocation estimates, budgetary analysis, risk factor identification and risk factor mitigation strategies.
· Gathering requirements, specifications and best practice documentation from multiple stakeholders on how to enhance and roll out new features for Salesforce.com CRM tool
· Perform gap analysis and produce strategies and tactical plans to enhance the customer's experience
· Create and manage the task schedule of deliverables as well as monitor the budget for each new program
· Working with groups of 3-10 users to facilitate acceptance and delivery of new CRM tool modifications
· Provide progress reports to management, escalate issues as needed, identify and minimize risk factors, assess project changes and their impact to schedule and budget
· Reviewing the quality and consistency of all changes and enhancements throughout the development process

Please notice two things: the valuable contributions of an IT professional are still right up there on the list; the low-value, career-stagnating parts of the job are not.

To me, this looks like the beginning of a revival of the opportunity—and even, perhaps, the joy—of pursuing an IT career.