The technology training firm O’Reilly Media Inc. today announced a promising new educational offering aimed at helping inexperienced software developers find their feet in the cloud.

The new Cloud Labs training courses provide users with temporary access to a live cloud account, together with expert guidance from the O’Reilly learning platform. The idea is to embed cloud learning in information technology practitioners’ day-to-day jobs, O’Reilly explained, so users can progress seamlessly from learning cloud skills to applying them in the real world.

The initial Cloud Labs offering supports Microsoft Azure, providing instructions on how to get started using that platform’s cloud services. The learning modules within it are designed to be short, digestible and practical, O’Reilly said, guiding learners through real-world scenarios with step-by-step instructions. Learners have the option of following through either the cloud console user interface or an integrated command line interface. In this way, they have the flexibility to practice applying their skills in the way that suits their own preference for working, in a safe environment that won’t cause any problems for existing systems.

O’Reilly believes it will see significant demand for its Cloud Labs offering. It notes that enterprises around the world are looking to hire cloud computing professionals at an unprecedented rate. Between 2018 and 2021, the share of cloud computing roles on the job advertising site Indeed rose by 42%, O’Reilly said.

Interestingly, though, O’Reilly believes the talent to fulfill these roles already exists. The problem is that many developers just lack experience working with specific cloud platforms.

As O’Reilly President Laura Baldwin explained, cloud environments have notoriously steep learning curves and many companies are worried that developers might make mistakes while trying to learn on the job.

“By pairing top-quality instruction with access to live cloud resources, our users gain hands-on experience with the most used cloud environments,” Baldwin said. “Because they have the freedom to make mistakes without consequences, practitioners learn how to solve tangible business problems. And that adds enormous value for their organizations.”

Holger Mueller of Constellation Research Inc. agreed that cloud learning can be a challenge. Yet cloud skills are in short supply and high demand, he said.

“Something needs to happen to help developers acquire and practice cloud skills in a way that’s faster and more efficient,” Mueller continued. “The approach taken by O’Reilly is promising because it offers both practice and learning environments to help new developers find their feet. If developers are no longer bogged down with the challenging setup required to get into a learning environment, they should be able to acquire and hone their cloud skills much faster.”

O’Reilly said it will soon launch additional Cloud Labs for Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud environments. The first Cloud Labs modules will target introductory-level job roles with Microsoft Azure, with future content releases set to cover more intermediate and advanced skills.

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