James Barlow, founder of Triumph Tech, traveled to NYC to talk to a group of Princeton students about the future of the tech industry and the role AWS is playing in transforming the digital landscape around them.

“I’m humbled, and find it an honor, to have been asked to come and represent my company and myself,” said James to the camera crew who accompanied him. “I hope they ask questions that will put me in a position to be able to give them experience and knowledge that will help them unlock their own dreams.”

The Next Generation is the Future

The next batch of specialists and engineers will determine the course of tomorrow’s innovation and growth. To James, this represents hope.

“I love being able to help others achieve their dreams,” James said after considering the changes cloud computing has gone through. “It was great again to be able to pour into the future of the engineering world with the knowledge and experience that I’ve acquired.” To Triumph Tech’s founder, paying it forward is an important — and unfortunately often overlooked — part of technological progress.

The next generation is the future, yes, but the next generation also has to be nurtured, taught, and exposed to the exciting advancements they themselves can someday help create.

The Future is in the Cloud

The big cloud providers are experiencing massive and unprecedented growth. “There’s so much opportunity there,” James said excitedly.

But while there’s opportunity, there’s also a shortage of cloud-trained engineers. “It’s a very lucrative business,” he says. “It’s been a very hot market. Salaries are high for folks looking to go into the cloud.” But the problem, he explains, is a lack of outreach and follow-through.

Cloud services, containers, serverless, big data services, and AI and ML are all helping remold and recast what’s possible for businesses in a constantly changing and ever-segmented world. With AWS, companies can migrate, scale, and expand without loss of service or efficiency. CEOs can have their data delivered fast and collated seamlessly. Employees working in the cloud may never have to deal with, update, or manage an overabundance of hardware.

And to ignore all that progress? To not teach it in school? That doesn’t cut it for James. The two biggest consumers of cloud solutions are the financial and healthcare fields, massive industries that need fast and optimized service and application delivery.

And that’s only the start.

The Cloud is AWS

To Triumph Tech, working in the cloud means working with AWS. “We are all-in with Amazon Web Services,” explained James. “We don’t work with Google Cloud. We don’t work with Microsoft Azure. We are 100% exclusive to Amazon.”

Why? Because Amazon appreciates the loyalty. They lean into Triumph as much as Triumph leans into them, and the work they do together helps create great things.

For new startups that want to work with AWS, there are options. “Maybe build a product,” James tells a student during the Q+A. “If you want to build a piece of software — a SaaS piece of software — you can partner with Amazon and they will co-sell your software with you.” If you can’t bring your product to customers, Amazon can help you do it. “Just like they bring in their service partners like us.”

Regardless of how a founder goes about it — despite whether they have the ability to be a service partner or not — working with Amazon and AWS on any level can be the starting point for a business’s next stage. For individuals who want to work but are not necessarily entrepreneurs, there are countless options for employment at companies like Triumph Tech, which can not only offer exposure to the cloud, but also certifications and job advancement. Triumph Tech can move a junior-level engineer to a senior-level position in as little as one or two years.

James Barlow, Founder of Triumph Tech

The future is today. The cloud helps businesses adapt for tomorrow. James Barlow believes that our future is dependent on what we’re working on right now. And the only way to achieve that sort of success, continuity, or permeance is to reach out to those new to the field.

The next generation deserves all the guidance we can afford to give them.