How can you master technical support in the cloud?

Take advantage of provided materials by Microsoft, Amazon and Google. They all provide materials to help get you up to speed on the cloud and services ( which are ever changing) that can be provided within. There are resources on YouTube like John Savill who will teach you Microsoft's Azure environment, for example, for the benefit of the IT community. You will need to plan to either watch demonstrations or start playing around. There is no better way than to learn by example and perhaps have a small project in mind to give some of your learning a goal rather than just learning to learn.

Mastering tech support in the cloud involves understanding various tools and best practices. Some information includes: Learning Cloud Governance: Understand the methodologies that drive cloud governance. Start with a minimum viable product (MVP) for governance and iteratively improve it as your cloud estate changes. Multi-Cloud Management: Familiarize yourself with multi-cloud environments and management solutions like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform. Remember, mastering these tools is not just a technical journey but also a strategic one that shapes the future of your enterprise. Continuous learning and staying updated with the latest cloud technologies and trends will be key to your success.

One of the best ways to learn and master cloud skills is to practice them repeatedly. Personally, I have found that revisiting the lab work and knowledge base articles that I have done before helps me refresh and reinforce my cloud knowledge. Sometimes, I even encounter new insights or tips that I overlooked the first time around. So, my advice, don’t hesitate to go back to the basics and review what you have learned previously. Doing so, will only build and improve your cloud skills, keeping you sharp and fresh.

I agree practice is the only true way to get better. You need to get your hands in the system and play until you understand. Sometimes it works best to have someone to work with so you can share findings and perhaps have a goal set for you so its not just learning but learning to try to solve a problem ( even if its small.. it gets you started). Know that sometimes you will need to seek out others to help you and that the ecosystem is changing constantly so you will need to watch for changes in the products that are being offered. As time progresses and more people adopt, expect that costs will get lower and more options will emerge.

Things are getting updated more rapidly in the cloud space than ever before. What we knew yesterday might not be optimal today. Doing a professional course and implementing that knowledge is not enough anymore. Always cross-check the best available options and best practices. Often, documentation is not updated about specific features, so learning from various sources might help. I always refer to the published date of the learning material as it might make a massive difference in the optimal solution. It's not about right or wrong any more, the quest is about an optimal suitable solution.

The processes documentation and knowledge base must be dynamic documents or charts (easily read and written) and continuously improved based on feedback by technical support teams .

Cloud platforms are evolving and the adage "it if ain't broke don't fix it" might not apply, embracing change where that wasn't the case previously means proactively optimizing as part of run and manage. Actively applying and updating services like AWS Config or Azure Policy for cloud guardrails means that optimization for security, governance, and cost evolves over time, and that will require the support team to embrace learning just to keep pace. Beyond the run and manage incremental change, a holistic perspective is required too. A solution leveraging new services may mean massive business benefit, so a proactive tech team with an eye on the horizon in the context of current cloud usage is ideal for maximizing business benefit.

there must be way for Technical and customer support's teams to request new features or improve existing features , and in some cases a new products that align with existing product offerings.

Aside from having some features and limitations, every service in the cloud has an associated price tag. You might build a gold-plated solution for your customers, but they might not be able to afford it. You'll need to know your customers' requirements and limitations. Often, customers need clarification about the requirements, so finding the actual need is an essential skill of support personnel. Asking the right questions and using prototypes can help unearth the existing conditions. In today's world, non-functional requirements (performance, reliability, security, etc.) are integral to the solution and should be considered first.

The specific skills and knowledge-base are certainly important; however, it is more important to maintain a learning attitude and curiosity. Also, mentorship is extreme important. Knowledge-base is so varied across cloud support, and is always changing. In addition, there are frequently significant skill-sets in navigating the support structure in large organizations which also frequently change, so you will never be able to learn everything in an Academic way. The only way is through adopting a learning attitude and embracing mentorship and coaching from more experienced colleagues as you gain experience doing the work.