Businesses grow in-house networking expertise to meet new challenges With Covid-19 and a rising need for SASE, SD-WAN and cloud skills, businesses increasingly rely on in-house training to provide hands-on experience Credit: Dreamstime As the traditional approach to networking is replaced by hybrid cloud, SD-WAN and edge networks, in-house skill sets haven't kept up. Hiring new staff is one option to narrow the deficit, but there's a skills shortage in the industry right now, and hiring is expensive. According to McKinsey, it often costs around $30,000 to bring on a new employee, not counting the onboarding training. As a result, 82 per cent of global executives surveyed by McKinsey say that re-skilling and up-skilling will be at least half the solution to their skills gaps.