Cloud Talk – Page 7 – Scriptingthewhy.com

Wish I knew this before jumping into the cloud

Journey Upward

So, you are looking to start a career in the cloud, and you are eager to pick your courses from platforms like Coursera, Udemy, and edX to begin tracking that great journey into the cloud. You are on the hunt to gain a new set of skills and knowledge which you look to lead you to a bigger payday and a greater way of living.

After surveying the internet, talking to your peers, questioning the systems admin at your current job about things that were hot in Information technology, and they told you “Cloud computing was trending in the tech world and edge computing was on the horizon”.

On the internet, you will find countless articles on the cloud championing to be the go-to career choice, especially since the boom of the covid-19 pandemic many companies switched to using the cloud. Making the switch so they can continue to develop, house data, and migrate to being completely digital.

This is one of the most sought-after skills that are high in demand and is only going to increase in demand in the coming years. Well, while that is all good and well there are a few things you may want to consider before slamming your card or your parents down and saying, “sign me up”.

House of Cards

Choosing which CSP you are going to be using is very important. There are a ton of providers out there from A-To-Z such as Cloudflare (a United States provider based in San Francisco, California) to Alibaba Cloud (a Chinese provider, based in Singapore). Not saying you are going to be starting with either one of them but if you continue and make it a career, these are a couple out of the many you may come across.

This is being said because there will be a time when performing multi-cloud (linking different CSPs to each other to utilize benefits such as prices). Aside from them, there are the main three or the big three when it comes to cloud computing. You have Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure.

AWS is the largest with more availability zones and regions to operate, Azure is right behind AWS but not as large, and Google falls last for size and time. Choosing which one to start with isn’t much of a chore since they all have simple user interfaces (UI) and PowerShell (terminals) to use.

Something quick to note is that once you learned one you pretty much learned them all since most of the setup is the same, just that the names for resources and their placement on the UI are different. However, at this junction, I’m going to be biased since my journey started with AWS. You always remember your first love.

Check out the link below to compare CPS.

https://intellipaat.com/blog/aws-vs-azure-vs-google-cloud/

Pay to Play

After sorting out which CPS to go with, you then must lay down a credit or debit card to gain access to resources. You are the customer first in the cloud before you become the third-party constructor.

No need to worry about making a large payment because providers offer a trial program after you fill out the payment method and then receive a credit to use. Certain things like processors and storage are free within a defined limit. The use of resources like this does not charge too much, the low is ten cents an hour.

However, it is insanely important to create a budget before building hands-on projects. A good limit (which most instructors will tell you) is $10.00 – $12.00. The purpose of setting a budget is to keep you from screaming Homer Simpson’s famous catchphrase at the end of the month.

I had the unfortunate pleasure of leaving Amazon DynamoDB Accelerator (DAX) running which triggered an alert to notify me via email that I had exceeded my designated limit. Thankfully my statement was something I could pay but the fact remains. Make sure everything is stopped or deleted before you sign out.

Toughest challenge

Okay at this point, you probably picked out your study material, CPS and access to the cloud were granted. Your budget is set and you’re ready to start building projects to beef up that portfolio. What else could be ahead of you?

Well, if you are anything like me when I made my track into cloud technology and solely focused on cloud. You will be easily overwhelmed by the sheer number of things that are available when starting.

I went in wanting to learn everything cloud and after one or two courses, viewing learning paths, and staring at diagrams I quickly realized that was going to be a tall order since everything from web development to data science could be done in the cloud.

Cloud is an ever-growing technology, that is gaining more and more services at a rapid pace. With more services comes more things to know and be aware of. Staying up to date is going to be challenging because what’s working for you today might not be in use tomorrow.

A good way to stay on top of this is to frequently check white page documents (if you choose AWS), blogs, and forums to see if anything is no longer being used.

If you have made it this far and still are not sure where to pick up course materials to start, below I will leave a few recommendations.

https://www.udemy.com/course/aws-certified-cloud-practitioner-new/

https://www.coursera.org/learn/aws-cloud-practitioner-essentials

If you have found this post to be interesting and you would like to read a quick take on how companies are falling into money pits in the cloud, be sure to check out the link to my post below.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/suffering-aoc-allure-cloud-everette-powell%3FtrackingId=Zq%252BT2QxFTauSnRhlHqhwYw%253D%253D/?trackingId=Zq%2BT2QxFTauSnRhlHqhwYw%3D%3D

AI, Cloud Talk, Programming, Security, Tech

W.o.W on Steroids

Quick note: if you’re viewing this via email, come to the site for better viewing. Enjoy!

red tv on a box — The Metaverse will not be televised, you will not be able to sit at your desk and cop out.
Photo by Christiano Sinisterra, please support by following @pexel.com

Do you remember the good old days of living in a cave with your favorite show on the fire, you sat waiting for your significant other to wake up from “clubbing” too hard so they can make you a meal.

You know, real caveman stuff that lasted up to the end of the 1950s. No, me neither, I was born many years after disco had caught that lovely final sunset and bellbottoms were fading into nothing more than a high schooler’s cry for help.

Now our lives are filled with so much more than before, we went from throwing up peace signs, and yelling about making love and not war to making people pay for something they said way back when freedom of speech was just that, freedom of speech.

As you look around you, you can see that we have an ever-growing list of devices and gadgets that connect us to the internet creating a new world for us to live in and hopefully not destroy but if Uncle Ben has taught us anything, with great power, comes zero responsibility.

person wearing VR goggles — Everything is so life-like, I should try walking around.
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio, please support by following @pexel.com

Meeting Meta

What is this new world we are making for ourselves just in case we can’t get on Elon’s rocket ship to Mars? Look no further than the Metaverse. No, not Meta, that was a desperation tactic to innovate a dying company. Don’t believe me, check their stock price.

Metaverse is a point for communication that bridges physical and virtual experiences. The digital environment is complete with augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technology that will change how we connect to and access information.

This would be a place where you could create your second life, well that’s what the aim is, however, you’ll be able to do everything except eat and perform that all-so-sweet saucy dance called “fun hugging” to make a baby. You know, the important things to further our existence in this world.

girl playing computer games — She may seem nice but that’s doesn’t mean she won’t hesitate to put a cap in you online.
Photo by RODNAE Productions, please support by following @pexel.com

In The Verse of Toxicity

If you have ever spent any time online playing a video game like Call of Duty or Halo, you will know there is a galaxy of toxic people. More than you meet in real life and it’s all thanks to not enough people signing my petition to move forward with my “Everyone gets one punch to the throat” program. Now we have a world of people walking around not knowing what a throat punch feels like.

So, as you can imagine, the metaverse is meant for everyone, however, be prepared to experience online interactions if you haven’t had one. But the metaverse end idea hasn’t been developed yet. Microsoft acquired a company called AltspaceVR which originally sought to create the metaverse mentioned above.

AltspaceVR was looking to offer a 3d world that would host club nights with live DJs, book launches, fashion shows, bible study, and stand-up comedy nights. However, with a lack of funding to keep servers running, this company was forced to sunset. That’s “We have to put Lassie down” in IT terms.

AltspaceVR join with Microsoft to create Microsoft Mesh, this is a mixed-reality communication platform that’s based on holograms using 3d captures to let people work together as if they were in the same space.

This application of VR is business-oriented and while it may not be to the likes of what AltspaceVR was looking to offer the upside is since it has holograms, you’re bound to catch a Tupac or two walking around the virtual office.

a pill and a bitcoin coin — In the metaverse, you can either take the pill to make you go back to sleep or…just give us money. We like money more.
Photo by Jonathan Borba, please support by following @pexel.com

Trying to Live, Love, Laugh in VR

So, what makes the metaverse so important? Well, aside from having all the benefits of Ready Player One without the dystopian society (but hold on to your seat kids because we’re on our way) companies to the likes of Microsoft, Google, Nvidia, and Qualcomm all have invested billions of dollars in the idea.

This is scary because in order to have just one, I repeat just one, it could range from $25,000 to $400,000. That means you’re either putting down or paying for a house that doesn’t exist. A quick thing to note is like most things brought up in IT, the term has always been around, it dates to the 90s and was coined from a science fiction novel called “Snow Crash”. This sounds like a good read if you’re ever on the “white horse”.

Moving along, now there are some people in thought of the metaverse failing before it even launches and they’re not wrong in their thought. As you can imagine, trying to live virtually isn’t going to go all that well. Take for example, you’re playing a game in Oculus rift, and you have to go to the bathroom, since you’re playing a game multi-player you won’t be able to pause so what are you going to do? If I read any of you in the comment section saying, “I’d just go to the bathroom with the rift on”, I will be…well…not surprised because humans are going to human.

Porcelain thrones aside, other concerns are security, the metaverse has the same risk factors as simply being on the internet watching or uploading cat videos. These factors could be but are not limited to malware, viruses, hackers, and your children or significant other.

Children or significant other, but Z-Daddy how? Ja, that’s social engineering which is a form of hacking so have fun getting to sleep knowing the people you share a house with could be the reason you see mysterious charges popping up on your statements. Again, with great power, comes zero responsibility.

teacher looking a classroom of students with their hands raised — A quick show of hands, who has an Instagram account. Dear Budda, your parents are failing you.
Photo by Max Fischer, please support by following @pexel.com

Building Second Life Apart

I can hear you now, “Z-Daddy, can we get a job to help build this great metaverse?” Ja, ja, mein kind. You can land a job working on the development of the metaverse. Skills that would be needed are Java, computer programming, blockchain, and UI/UX (User interface/ User experience).

All these skills could be acquired by either joining meetups (not hookups), taking online courses, or opting for a boot camp or some other form of program. C++ would be another programming language to learn if you’re looking for development closer to the hardware.

The metaverse may not be to the level of what’s displayed in the Matrix or Ready Player One but that doesn’t mean you have to spend your time at a university to apply a degree of what you could apply if were to venture on your own without a degree.

It all comes down to how badly you want to start your second life.

group cheering watching sports on tv — Z-Daddy strikes again, come on! How can you not love this guy!?
Photo by Tamuka Xulu, please support by following @pexel.com

Made it this far and found this to be entertaining? Then a big thanks to you and please show your support by cracking a like, scripting a comment, launch a share, or plug-in to follow.

Would like to give sincere thanks to current followers and subscribers, your support and actions mean a lot and has a play in the creation of each script.

Do you think you could have a play in the Metaverse?

Script a comment below.

AI, Cloud Talk, Programming, Security, Tech

Degreeless Teams and Loose Commitments

Consider following on social media!

Quick note: if you’re viewing this via email, come to the site for better viewing. Enjoy!

people looking into a laptop — Lee: Guys, I don’t like going to scriptingthewhy. Let’s just go back to work.
Jenn: Lee, you’re the intern, your opinion doesn’t matter. Now go get us coffee.
Photo by cottonbro studio, please support by following @pexel.com

Have you ever been on a team and no matter what or how hard any of you try, nothing seems to mesh well? You all get along and work well together but none of the ideas any of you provide for a project you’re working on yields any positive results.

Suffering the same circumstances of just being another failed new year’s resolution where either you or someone on the team falls off track by getting distracted causing scope creep.

Or no matter the pace that’s set it seems not to be fast enough and you’ll never see the project done. How would you feel if I told you that adopting a different framework from what you’re familiar with might be the remedy to your and your teams’ problems?

As I have mentioned in a script before, this might be another process you will come to trust.

young running down the road — Tim: I have to be more agile; I can do that with sprints.
Z-Daddy: That’s the wrong agile, you don’t have to do CrossFit.
Photo by Our Anti Rafsanjani Gums, please support by following @pexel.com

Full Team Full Sprint

What’s this crazy new process, this insane new wave of thinking that’s going to see your party moving along so you can get done sooner rather than later?

You might want to switch to Agile. No, not being more agile although I see what they did there, and you will too. Agile methodology is a way to manage a project by breaking it up into several phases.

In software development, Agile practices include requirements discovery and solution improvement through a collaborative effort of self-organizing and cross-functional teams with their customers or end users.

Instead of betting everything on a “big bang” launch, an agile team delivers work in small, but consumable, increments. I know what you’re thinking, no this would not work at a casino if you tried this approach. In fact, this would see you being asked to leave the table with two well-dressed gentle-for-right-now-men wanting to “question” you and you’d be lucky to leave with a broken hand.

The Agile Manifesto for software development was a declaration of unifying philosophy from frameworks like Scrum, Extreme programming, and Feature-Driven Development (FDD). The Agile Manifesto greatly departed from the waterfall-style project management approaches that were widely in use prior to that time.

The Waterfall methodology is a project management approach that emphasizes a linear progression from the beginning to the end of a project. This methodology, often used by engineers, is front-loaded to rely on careful planning, detailed documentation, and consecutive execution.

Translation, there’s an Everest amount of paperwork to do. So, if you look at it in a corporate way, Smokey the bear was right. You can prevent forest fires…by simply cutting down the forest.

Now, the following is in their words, and their wording is well… going to sound a bit interesting; “We are uncovering better ways to developing software by doing it and helping others do it.” Yes, this does sound like a spank me daddy moment. Come get yourself a Scrum Daddy. Okay, that was cringe, I’m sorry. Back to the manifesto,

Through this work, we have come to value:

Individuals and interactions over processes and tools
Working software over comprehensive documentation
Customer collaboration over contract negotiation
Responding to change over following a plan

That is, while there is value in the items on the right, we value the items on the left more.”

I think everyone would agree to add one more line saying, “pay to merit over able to punch the clock.”

a young man delivering items — Look at this and try not to have a Karen moment.
Karen: Sir, you don’t live here.
Photo by Kindel Media, please support by following @pexel.com

Taste of Agile

You may be wondering, who in their left-wing corporate America mind follows this way of thinking to get a project done? Well, you’ll be glad to know that there are a decent number of companies that use teams who operate in this fashion.

Agile is the best methodology to follow in cases of complex projects. A complex project may have various interconnected phases and each stage may be dependent on many others rather than one as in simple projects.

The most well-known companies that use Agile methodology are Apple and IBM (yes, we’re still not on speaking terms), Microsoft, and Procter & Gamble. However, there are many other companies that use agile as well, to great effect.

Yes, I know it might not taste like it, but you will be surprised to know McDonald’s uses Agile. As you can figure Agile methods are preferred for large and complex projects.

So the next time you decide to go get yourself some McDonald’s, take a big bite and don’t chew, I want to watch you from the corner of the room swallow and take comfort in knowing a team of people puts that juicy maybe-it’s-real-meaty big bun action together for you to enjoy.

Enjoy the read so far? Why don’t you consider subscribing so you can keep up to date?

two men sitting at a computer — Mark: Eric… I know it looks like you’re working on the project, but looking at your tabs I also see you’re…
Eric: It’s Stack Overflow, they just turned their colors to black and orange.
Photo by cottonbro studio, please support by following @pexel.com

Fixing Loose Ends

Ever thought about who and how this framework helps? Me neither until now. The Agile framework is a powerful tool that helps managers, team members, and clients work more efficiently and more effectively while delivering the highest quality product within the constraints of the budget.

You can think of this as an assembly line in a factory where the belt can go back and forth instead of just one direction. Agile produces important metrics like lead time, cycle time, and throughput that measure the team’s performance, identify bottlenecks and make data-driven decisions to correct them.

It seems like a lot of back and forth, but this is better than pushing a product out only for it to come back with a monolith list of items to fix. If you worked in the market of flipping houses, you will know that it’s the worst when you’re about to put the house on the market only to find more things that need fixing.

young lady in graduation outfit. — Sarah: You mean I didn’t have to get a degree to join an agile team?
Z-Daddy: No, nor do you have to join CrossFit.
Photo by Leeloo Thefirst, please show support by following @pexels.com

Framing Degreeless

Do you need a degree to be Agile? Well with this being a framework and not job placement, you don’t need a degree however, many employers prefer candidates with a bachelor’s degree in a relevant field, such as Information Technology.

The need to have a degree in the IT field or any other fields where people have displayed, they can land a job or start their careers without one, has always been one of those weird barriers put in place.

It’s like having a bouncer at a nightclub and to get passed him, you simply dress as a ladyboy. Companies, it’s okay, you don’t have to be in the closet anymore, stop keeping the degreeless jobless.

My ranting aside, you don’t have to be a person or team in IT to be introduced to Agile. Each team will benefit from collaboration, recurring interactions, recognizing failure early, incrementing fast results, and finally continuous learning. If you wanted a position, you could become a Scrum Daddy.

Scrum Daddies should have significant work experience working with Agile as well as excellent teamwork and communication skills. Always remember to be a good daddy and bond with your children.

older gentleman seat at laptop and on phone — Honey, we don’t have to worry about my hip, some guy named Z-Daddy said we were thinking of the wrong agile. So, cancel the CrossFit subscription.
Photo by Andrea Piacquadio, please support by following @pexel.com

Made it this far and found this to be entertaining? Then a big thanks to you and please show your support by cracking a like, sharing this with whomever, scripting a comment, or plug-in to follow.

Would like to give sincere thanks to current followers and subscribers, your support and actions mean a lot and has a play in the creation of each script.

Do you find the Agile framework interesting?

Script a comment below about how you think it could help you.