To Canadian colleges, universities, technology training programs, and boot camps:
Canada needs more people who understand how cloud infrastructure works beneath a vendor console.
AWS, Azure, and VMware skills belong in the curriculum. They are used across Canadian organizations, and students need fluency with them. Yet commercial-platform training alone leaves a gap. Students also need the vendor-independent knowledge required to build, operate, secure, and move infrastructure.
That knowledge matters for Canadian technology capability, digital sovereignty, and the long-term health of our engineering workforce.
ZSoftly builds and operates ZCP, a Canadian cloud platform. Our work depends on engineers who understand cloud-native operations, from Linux and container tools to networking, storage, automation, and identity. This is why education matters to us. It shapes the cloud-native workforce Canadian technology companies need.
A personal reason for writing this
I completed my capstone project at Algonquin College in 2022. I had already worked in the industry for more than six years. As an immigrant, I enrolled because I wanted Canadian education alongside my prior experience.
Throughout my experience in the program, Git and GitHub never came up in the course material I encountered. Neither did core practices such as configuration management and infrastructure as code. The closest we came to automation was Bash and Python scripting taught as software-development tools.
This was a Computer Systems Technician program. I expected more exposure to the tools and practices used to build and operate modern infrastructure. Tools such as Chef, Ansible, Puppet, and Terraform were outside the course material we had been working with.
For my capstone, I provisioned the infrastructure on VMware vSphere 6.5 with Terraform. I then deployed a three-tier application with Ansible in under 15 minutes. My classmates were surprised by the result. My professor was impressed too.
The point was not the deployment time. The point was what the workflow revealed. Infrastructure did not need a long series of manual clicks. Teams describe, review, repeat, and deploy it in a consistent way.
This is one experience, not a judgment on every program or every student. It showed me a gap worth closing. Students deserve hands-on experience with the building blocks beneath the platforms they will use at work.
Canada needs cloud builders
Canada talks often about domestic technology capacity. We discuss AI, data centres, cybersecurity, sovereign cloud, and digital sovereignty. Each goal depends on people who understand infrastructure at a deeper level.
A graduate who knows how to deploy an application in a public cloud has a useful skill. A graduate who also understands Linux, networking, virtualization, storage, containers, and automation has a wider foundation. They understand what sits beneath the console and what to do when a managed service does not fit the requirement.
Those skills give teams more choice. They support portable architecture, stronger procurement decisions, and a local workforce able to operate critical systems.
One capstone experience does not settle the case. The Government of Canada’s Digital Talent Strategy identifies cloud infrastructure and application development among current high-demand domains. It also describes a Cloud Skills Adoption project testing trusted government and industry curricula. The Digital Research Alliance of Canada links nationwide digital research infrastructure to ongoing skills training. The 2024 OpenInfra Foundation annual report documented university partnerships where students worked with mentors on real OpenStack and open-infrastructure projects.
These examples do not prescribe one curriculum for Canada. They show that hands-on cloud and infrastructure education belongs in wider workforce development.
Teach the open infrastructure layer alongside commercial platforms
Commercial platforms should remain part of cloud education. The answer is a broader curriculum, not a replacement curriculum.
Programs pair vendor training with practical work in open infrastructure:
- Linux administration and shell fundamentals
- TCP/IP networking, DNS, routing, firewalls, and VPNs
- KVM and virtualization fundamentals
- Docker and Docker Compose for packaging and running applications
- OpenStack and Apache CloudStack for cloud orchestration
- Ceph for block, object, and file storage
- Terraform or OpenTofu for infrastructure as code
- Ansible, Chef, and Puppet for configuration management
- Identity, access control, logging, monitoring, backup, and incident response
These technologies help students see the layers of a cloud platform and the relationships between them. They also give students transferable skills. Engineers carry skills in networking, identity, infrastructure as code, and container operations from one employer or platform to another.
Give students labs where they operate the system
The strongest lessons come from real systems.
Students build a small private-cloud environment. They create a virtual network, provision a virtual machine, configure a firewall, and attach storage. They package an application with Docker and Docker Compose, set up monitoring, and recover from a failure.
They write infrastructure definitions in Terraform or OpenTofu and configure hosts and applications with Ansible. The lab uses version control and shows how a change moves through review, deployment, and rollback.
The lab also raises operational questions:
- What happens when a storage node fails?
- How do you limit access with identity and network controls?
- Where does data reside?
- How do you move a workload between environments?
- What documentation will let another engineer operate the system?
These labs do more than teach a tool. They teach systems thinking, operational discipline, and accountability.
Build a bridge between education and Canadian infrastructure
Canadian education and training providers need access to Canadian cloud providers, technology companies, and open-source communities.
Industry partners bring working infrastructure and experienced operators. Schools bring teaching expertise and students. A pilot starts with a lab, workshop, or placement project.
This work does not require every school to build a production cloud. It requires a commitment to practical access and a curriculum that values how infrastructure is built as much as how it is consumed.
A practical next step
I urge Canadian colleges, universities, technology training programs, and boot camps to expand cloud education beyond a single vendor interface.
A school does not need a full private-cloud project to start.
ZSoftly is interested in discussions with institutions exploring this work. Start with an existing course need, then decide whether a lab, workshop, or placement project fits.
If you lead a program, teach infrastructure, or work on workforce development, get in touch with our team.
Regards,
Ditah Kumbong Founder & CTO, ZSoftly