Ask HN: If I Close My Data Centers, What About the People/Jobs Lost?
Just retrain them.<p>They're going to have tangential skills to the new platform.<p>Get your network team to learn all about VPCs and networks and security groups and peering and VPNs, train them to be your in-house experts to deal with changes and expansions and to help trouble-shoot issues.<p>Chances are you're still going to have systems, your systems engineers can be repurposed to better tie in your monitoring tools, your security tools, etc. You're going to need authentication and identity management, and probably have internal people handling it.<p>If they're motivated to keep their jobs, all it should cost you is a $5-20K/head in training.<p>That's peanuts compared to the turmoil of everyone thinking they're going to lose their jobs, or the costs of hiring new people w/ pre-existing cloud skills. It is cheaper than the stop-gap of paying outside consultants till you can bring in the interior staff. Also, these people _know_ your existing systems. They know your business logic, they know what needs to be up and they know what can't break on Thanksgiving weekend. That is valuable knowledge that is a hidden cost in rehiring the work force.<p>You're going to find new challenges in the new system. If your employees are willing to transition, then transition them. It is your best bet.<p>If you have a subset of employees that can't/refuse to transition, put them on performance improvement plans. No rumor mill - if you're on a PiP you need to shape up or get out; if you're not on a PiP keep doing well, your job is safe.