As well as a broad range of basic skills, there are a couple of Comp. Sci. skills that I like to see, and without these I tend to be more cautious: - Compiler Construction - Formal Methods - Parallel Programming These broad heading are the general indicator of what I am looking for, I think they give the kind of depth that you will come back to again and again in a career. So I look at what options my prospective employee has taken in their Comp. Sci. Degree. If I see optional courses taken that fall into the categories above, they go to the top of the list. If they have instead taken lots of multimedia, web or softer options instead I will be more cautious (unless of course I am looking for these particular skills)

There are a number of emerging technologies that enable very smooth scaling between single data centre (trad colo), single data centre + single cloud provider, single data centre + multiple cloud providers, multiple data centre + multiple cloud providers and all using the same base application stack.

These emerging technologies enable the configuration of your application, using underlying grid-type infrastructure, to deploy in multiple physical and virtual environments.

By virtualising the virtualisation (for want of a better term) they enable the rick to be spread so widely as to reduce it below the level of concern.

This enable the application architect to choose the correct mix from highly available but expensive infrastructure (e.g. data centre) and highly scalable and better cost infrastructure (e.g. cloud service with no SLA) to support the application. Flexible scalability and Flexible resilience.

Watch this space as these new players come up fast.