Meet David Linthicum – A Voice of Clarity in the Cloud Chaos
When David Linthicum talks about cloud computing, the room listens. With over 35 years of experience driving enterprise tech strategy—through leadership roles like Chief Cloud Strategy Officer at Deloitte Consulting and CTO at Cloud Technology Partners—David has earned his spot as one of the most trusted voices in the industry. He’s written more than a dozen books on enterprise IT and cloud, but what sets him apart is how clearly he connects technology to the people behind it.
Cloud Ops is in Crisis. David Linthicum Has a Plan to Fix It.
At Ditch The Drama, David delivered one of the most grounded and necessary talks of the day: Cloud Ops isn’t working—and we need to change that.
The Harsh Reality of Cloud Ops Today
David started by addressing what many in IT already know but too few are openly talking about: Cloud operations is burning people out. The numbers are bleak. Annual turnover in cloud ops roles is between 20–30%, significantly higher than the 12–17% average for other IT positions. And it’s not hard to see why.
“Cloud ops teams are constantly on call, always putting out fires, and rarely feel valued by leadership,” David said. “They’re isolated, overstressed, and under-recognized. That’s a recipe for burnout.”
According to a 2024 Forrester study he cited, 79% of cloud IT pros report burnout related to work-life balance, and fewer than 35% feel their jobs are truly valued. Meanwhile, leadership often overlooks ops until something breaks—at which point it’s all hands on deck.
Turning a Burnout Job into a Career Path
But David didn’t come to just highlight the problem—he came with solutions.
First, he emphasized that we need to stop treating cloud ops as a transitional role or a career pit stop. It can—and should—be a long-term, rewarding career. How? By building better environments around the work.
That includes:
- Promoting automation: Not as a buzzword, but as a real strategy. Automate repetitive tasks using tools like Terraform, Jenkins, and infrastructure-as-code (IaC) frameworks, but only after defining your actual needs.
- Encouraging proactive work: Reward ops teams not just for reacting to issues, but for preventing them. David shared how he used to offer bonuses for engineers who spent time creating self-healing systems or reducing alert fatigue.
- Investing in communication and collaboration: Too often, ops teams operate in silos, cut off from the rest of the organization. David urged leaders to create cross-functional syncs, shared KPIs, and a culture where cloud ops professionals feel heard—not just pinged when something breaks.
“People think the tech will solve everything, but it’s the people who make the tech work,” David noted. “Throwing AI or automation at a problem won’t fix what’s really broken—team dynamics, burnout, and lack of long-term planning.”
From Reactive to Strategic
One of the biggest takeaways from David’s session was that cloud ops doesn’t have to be reactive. It can be a strategic asset—if we make the right cultural and structural changes.
Teams need space for long-term thinking. They need mental health support. They need time off. They need better on-call rotation systems and leadership that understands the value of uptime, stability, and smart operations.
“The truth is, if you want fewer outages, more innovation, and a more stable business, invest in your cloud ops people,” he said. “Because the best technology in the world means nothing if no one’s around to run it well.”
Watch David’s Full Session
David Linthicum’s message is clear: Cloud ops isn’t doomed—but it does need to be reimagined. If companies prioritize their people just as much as their platforms, cloud ops can finally become the career it was meant to be: sustainable, respected, and genuinely rewarding.
How N2W Helps IT Teams Ditch the Drama
David’s talk was part of “Ditch the Drama,” a session series designed to spotlight the tools and mindsets that bring calm to the chaos of cloud operations. And there’s no better partner in that mission than N2W. Built specifically for cloud-native backup and recovery on AWS and Azure, N2W gives IT teams the confidence that their data is safe, recoverable, and always available—without the need for late-night panic or fire drills. From automated backups to rapid disaster recovery and cost optimization features, N2W helps teams move from reactive to proactive, reducing burnout and giving cloud ops professionals room to breathe, think strategically, and feel in control. It’s not just backup—it’s peace of mind, built into your infrastructure.
