IT leaders today are grappling with an increasingly difficult challenge: their networks are growing in complexity, but the skilled labor needed to manage and evolve those networks is in short supply.
The pinch is being felt by service providers and enterprises alike. While the existing networking knowledge base must be preserved, skill sets also need to advance rapidly to meet the demands of new architectures, automation, cloud-native infrastructure, and AI-driven services. Those advancements, compounded by a surge in demand for talent and systemic workforce issues as the veteran population ages out, has created a perfect storm.
The growing complexity of networks
Modern networks are no longer made of simple, static infrastructure. They’re dynamic ecosystems involving multi-cloud environments, edge computing, software-defined networking (SDN), zero-trust architectures, and advanced observability tools. These advancements, while essential, require deeper, broader skillsets than ever before.
A recent study by CompTIA found that job postings requiring emerging technologies like AI have surged over 1,800%. Add to that the growth in hybrid work models and distributed applications, and it’s clear why today’s networks are harder to manage and secure.
What’s causing the labor shortage?
Several key factors are contributing to the skilled labor crisis in the network engineering space:
- Aging Workforce: A large portion of seasoned network engineers are approaching retirement, and their institutional knowledge is walking out the door with them.
- Lack of Training Programs: While bootcamps and certifications exist, they often don’t go deep enough into real-world, vendor-specific experience needed for managing critical infrastructure.
- Geographic Challenges: Many skilled engineers are concentrated in specific metro areas, leaving gaps in rural or less-developed markets, particularly challenging rural broadband initiatives, for example.
- Technological Advancement Outpacing Education: Educational institutions are struggling to keep curriculum up with the pace of change in networking technologies. Many programs offer generalized areas of focus, preparing students with a generalized IT skillset and not the highly specialized and technical skillsets needed for IT engineering roles.
- Hyper-Competitive Market: According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the tech workforce will grow at 2x the rate of the overall U.S. workforce over the next decade. Roughly 70% of skilled technical workers receive multiple offers, and the fight for talent is real.
- Economic Pressure: The skilled worker deficit is expected to lead to over $162 billion in lost revenue across the tech sector if left unaddressed.
And let’s not forget, telecom-specific roles are not immune with 24,600 job openings for technicians in this space expected annually between 2023 and 2033.
How are companies responding?
To address these gaps, companies are trying several approaches:
- Upskilling existing teams
- Partnering with academic institutions
- Launching internal training and mentor programs
- Developing internships and apprenticeships
- Hiring overseas talent
These are effective approaches, but only solve part of the problem. The fastest and most cost-effective solution? Outsourcing specialized network expertise.
Why outsourcing works
Outsourcing gives IT leaders access to experienced professionals who are already trained, already certified, and already familiar with the complex realities of modern networking environments. It reduces time-to-impact, lowers hiring risk, and ensures continuity for mission-critical systems. A cost saving is also realized, as companies only pay for what they need, when they need it vs. investing in full-time staff. Further, the know-how of consultants, contractors, or other skilled professionals brings process expertise and other mentor-like capabilities to upskill your team vis-a-vis day-to-day collaboration.
At Kore-Tek, we’ve built a team with:
- Over 25 years average engineering experience
- More than 5 years annual tenure
- Proven expertise across optical networking, backbone and middle miles, data center interconnects, hybrid architectures, all leading OEM manufacturers, and more
We step in quickly to augment teams with remote or onsite engineers, as well as NOC services to help companies proactively keep their network running at its peak while avoiding costly downtime and burnout among the staff.
Final thoughts
The skilled labor shortage isn’t going away anytime soon. The stakes are high, and the cost of inaction is even higher. To keep networks secure, optimized, and ready for tomorrow’s demands, companies need to think differently today.
By outsourcing network engineering, operations, or maintenance to a trusted partner, like Kore-Tek, with deep networking experience, IT leaders can relieve pressure, preserve institutional knowledge, and make sure their infrastructures aren’t just maintained, but evolved