Tag: aws

AI, Cloud Talk, Programming, Security, Tech

Camps Dreams and Nothing In-between

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soldiers standing in a row.
You better keep reading if you don’t want me to add Old Bay seasoning to this backhand.
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It’s crunch time, you’re sitting at your computer with your shoulders slumped down heavily, your face in your hands covering up your exhaustion.  You rest your head back in search of relief due to the increasing weight of your thoughts.

Thoughts flanking your left and right rapidly firing questions of how you are going to fend off bills, provide for yourself and your family (if you have one), and see yourself in a better position than you currently are.

You ask yourself; “How would I be able to get to the next level?” You have made your declaration and have made it known that you don’t want to spend your best years in school, trying to ascend your way to the top of the class because let’s be honest, going to school has never been your kind of jam.

You were more of a System of a Down kind of person in your glory days and going to school would see your dreams end in Chop Suey. Would you be interested if you found out there was another path you could take?

You just might have to strap up your bootlaces and camp it out a bit.

Grayscale of group of people seated in class
I busted a cheek and smelt it yet…the game is on.
Photo by Christina Morillo, please support by following @pexel.com

The New About Face

With not wanting to be Another Brick in the wall, what is going to see you get to the next level? Simple, you can just join the Army and become more meat for the machine instead.

No, you don’t have to join the Army, you can opt for the less painful version which is a coding boot camp. Coding boot camps are short-term intensive training programs that provide students with practical and job-ready technical skills.

Boot camps enable students to go from “drooling at the mouth I can’t read, nor can I feel my brain” to “it’s so easy a caveman can do it.” Shout out to my Geico OGs. This provides students with the confidence and knowledge needed to immediately apply their new skills to solve real-world problems, please keep in mind solving world hunger and peace will not be included.

Now, undergoing this training looks great on paper but can have a steep learning curve depending on the instructor and class structure. Like the aim of a trade school, a coding boot camp is usually built around building marketable technology skills that can be leveraged toward a lasting career…or until they decide to let you go, I’m not going to lie to you, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows kid.  

And with how well-known companies are treating longtime employees like they’re the side-chick in public and acting like they don’t know them nowadays it’s something to brace for. The world will embody you as a stray cat, floor the gas pedal, hear a thud and pretend it never saw you in the rearview mirror.

young woman seat at computer with blurred bottle on desk.
I’m going to get through this boot camp.
It might not be sober, but I’m going to make it.
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Boot Perfect

So, coding boot camps, who uses them? Well, people who want to be developers obviously. This goes either way since people who are not developers and people who are can both benefit from entering a coding boot camp which either could be attempting to break into the field or simply learn another avenue of IT.

These programs often cover basic programming languages like JavaScript, SQL, and Python, along with modules on current industry software, tools, techniques, and best practices. You know, everything you would get if you enlisted minus being yelled at daily and performing repetitive self-affirmation of “There’s no place like home, there’s no place like home”.

As mentioned earlier, there’s no need for prior coding experience but at the same time having a little experience is a plus. A quick thought let’s say you were homeless and just so happen to have the funds through a Miracle on 31st Street sign yourself up for a coding boot camp, you could theoretically learn the skills needed to land yourself a job. However, these conditions are theoretical and in a perfect world, the odds may be low but they’re still there.

Coding boot camps, like many trade schools, are typically run by private, for-profit companies and is offered both in-person or online depending on the program.

man wearing brown backpack yelling.
COME YOU APES! YOU WANNA PRINT “HELLO WORLD” FOREVER!?
Photo by Pixabay, please support by following @pexel.com

Camp Field of Dreams

Coding boot camps, why are they so important? Well, there’s a massive shortage of skill, and developers are finding that trying to use those good ole job descriptions isn’t the vibe anymore.

To pair with that companies are finding themselves starting to favor the results of over-time-based experience versus simply just attending a four-year college and getting real-world experience later than sooner. This means going out and getting involved in as many hands-on projects as you can versus asking your parents for that sweet financial blood juice called a loan.

Now you may be wondering “Are coding boot camps worth anything?” The short answer is yes. I have checked around a few forums and have seen a few hiring recruiters say that this along with certificates is something they take into consideration.

I have a ton of certificates however, my email inbox is piled with rejection letters and my phone doesn’t even ring (the ringer is on, I checked). Am I saying this for you to feel bad for me? No, but you’re welcome to.

Just know, IT and a few other fields have gray areas, and this is one of them. I will say coding boot camps can work it just depends on your goals and you. That’s rich coming from me, I know but shut up, I’m being positive.

young gentleman meditating in the forest.
If I build a camp and wear a boot…they will come. Nope, never saying that again.
Photo by Maik Kleinert, please support by following @pexel.com

Wrong Boot Size

Wondering if completing a coding boot camp is something you could put on your resume? I will tell you…yes, yes you can, again I’m being positive. Not only does it show you have the needed skills and education, but it also displays that you have the dedication and work ethic to successfully complete a challenging program.

Now, while all of this sounds great, one thing to keep aware of is coding boot camps have some shortcomings such as limited personal instruction, which is depending how big the group you’re a part of, the instructor may not be able to provide enough feedback regarding your query on a project.

This is one of those, sitting with your hand raised high, the teacher selects you, and hears your question but never answers because someone in the class is having an outburst. They don’t mean to ignore you, but thanks to your classmates, it happens.

The other issue to be aware of is the “one size fits all”. Coding boot camps sometimes will have you learn something either you already know, or they think you should, but your skill level isn’t there and this ends up hurting more than helping.

This sucks but being selective with what camps you opt into by using reviews and checking the curriculum could save you from being fitted wrong.  

Drill Instructor: I SAID, “SUBCRIBE TO SCRIPTINGTHEWHY”!
Private: I DID SIR!
Drill Instructor: THEN WHY AREN’T YOU READING MORE SCRIPTS!?
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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, 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.

Thinking about enlisting into a coding boot camp?

Script a comment below about one you’re interested in.

Cloud Talk, Tech

Louis Armstrong didn’t see this

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friends sitting at a park with a dog
A wholesome picnic in the park. Do you think the dog will ever realize it was kidnapped?

Clouds Among Us

Have you ever gone to the local park, set up a picnic with your family, and when one of your members looks up at the clouds, asks you the following with a look of curiosity, “Hey, up there, is that where all the pictures of Gam-gam and us go?”

If your answer was “no”, then you would be correct in your answer both knowingly and unknowingly. How, might you ask?

Simple, one way would be that it’s 2022, and very few people go on picnics with their families anymore since the thought of meeting someone in person (especially in a public setting) has become a bit of “um gross”.  The other way you are correct is any information that is sent to the cloud does not go into an actual cloud.

If you said “yes”, there’s nothing wrong with you aside from the answer. You’re just hopeful and currently, that’s a hard thing to be.

Now, would you believe me if I told you those lovely photos you uploaded of Gam-gam, your spouse, kids, the first home you ever bought, and the person you’re having that affair with whom you hope does not turn out to be anything like Glenn Close’s character from the movie Fatal Attraction are digital items stored in a data center somewhere in a region near you?

Don’t believe me? Oh, I’ll explain how in due time. So, cloud computing, what is it, who and what uses it, how it shapes our world, and whether you can break in without a four-year degree from Harvard are questions we’re going to be answering today.

ice cream cone scooping a cloud
Scoop up too much in the cloud and you’ll go broke in record time.

Everyone gets Ice cream

Cloud computing, while it sounds edgy and sexy is not what the name states. Cloud is a term that refers to platforms for distributed computing. Don’t know what distributed computing is you say? Fret not, I got you.

Imagine you’re at your place of employment and your boss comes to you and says, “hey slave, I need you to work harder so I’m going to bequeath a monolith of paperwork for you to file and it has to be done within two hours from now.”

You look at your boss crazed and confused, there’s no way you’ll have all the paperwork filed in time, also you question… “did he really just address me as a slave”.

Now, let’s say instead of your boss coming up to just you, he holds a meeting with your fellow slaves and you, and delegates the paperwork that he expects to have within two hours. It’s more likely the work will be done within two hours since the workload was distributed.

Take this same example and picture a multitude of your co-workers, all with different job functions they can perform at various levels.  

So, if we were to say you need storage space because you ran out of room on that external hard drive you’ve been hiding in your hollowed version of “Lord of the Flies” labeled “NoFap Challenge”, just dump it in the cloud. Need quick deployment and the ability to scale for the crazy demands of black Friday sales, the cloud has you on that as well.

Remember when I mentioned the information was not going into the cloud but into a data center somewhere near, well this is made possible because each Cloud Service Provider (CSP) has several regions they can operate. Within those regions are some availability zones that house the equipment.

The benefit of having a setup like this is let’s say an earthquake hits and takes out one of the availability zones, since the others in the area back up each other, there’s not a loss in storage, data, or speed and they can still operate without skipping a beat.

Ha, believe me now? Shun you for not believing. A crazy thing to note, you can request a timeframe for use of a satellite. Don’t know what you would do or why you would need it unless you’re trying to groin laser James Bond but that’s insane is all I’m saying.

Could you imagine if companies only hired a handful of people and expected a workload about the size of the state of Utah to get done? Oh no…I forgot they do.

people throwing items up in the air
Someone going to get hit in the face.

May not Hurt…may

This is buckshot but must be said. Plus, it’s not much of a surprise but wait for it (drum roll…and) … everyone uses the cloud. Cat’s out of the bag on that one, shocker, I know. There’s not one person (unless internet service is not a thing in your area) who does not use the cloud in some form or another.

The cellphone you use to text the “I’m about 6 and a half” followed by triple eggplant emoji to your date whom you met on tinder, connects to the cloud. Laptops, computers, video game consoles, and anything with a Wi-Fi connection use and store information in the cloud with or without your knowledge.

Literally, there are just too many use cases for the cloud to list. Just know, you use it every time you save or upload something that is not on a local drive. Plus, with technology consistently being improved upon the abilities are limitless.

man sitting at computer smiling
I… I don’t even want to know what’s on his screen for him to smile this hard.

Our world in Cloud

As mentioned earlier, the cloud is pretty much in every aspect of our day-to-day. Cloud has shed some of the burdens of having to run out and purchase physical equipment and warehouse space. Enabling businesses to grow at a faster rate than they have before since (depending on their needs) everything tech-wise is handled for them.

Businesses can focus on getting to market quickly and not be bogged down with in-house issues. Families may be in silos at the dinner table, but people are connected now more than ever due to the placement of information in the cloud.

degree being handed
Come to me and I will make you unpayable.

With or Without

Well, like with trying to get into any field without a degree it’s going to be a bit of work, but you will be able to get there. What does it take to get into this field you might ask? That is up to you since mentioned earlier, there are just too many use cases for the cloud. This means there are a lot of jobs that you could work in the cloud. Just boils down to what tickles your fancy.

But to give a direction and this is according to ziprecruiter.com, an entry-level cloud engineer makes about $87,189.00.

The main things you are going to need to even think about the cloud are knowledge of a programming language is a must; Python is a good start and it’s used a lot.

A debit card because the cloud follows the pay-to-play method, so your card information is going to be required before you receive credits to do anything. Obtaining (you can but not really, it’s a gray area) a certification in cloud computing, especially one of the big three which are Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure. Getting one is good enough, getting more than one is better.

Finally, a portfolio of projects you have worked on either by yourself or with others. A funny thing I’ve heard about getting to work in the cloud is the old notion of “it’s not what you know but who you know”. Funny getting a job in networking deals with you being able to network.

family pointing at viewer
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Think you have what it takes to do cloud computing?

Script a comment about a project you would make in the cloud.

Cloud Talk, Tech

Cloud by an Angel, view how to…

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City in the clouds
We’re years into the future and we’re still not living like this, uh humans.
Photo by Aleksander Pasaric, please show support by following @pexel.com

Have you ever had that moment where you’re seated at your computer and thought to yourself, “there’s a lot of news on cloud computing. Seems like it’s a big deal. I wonder who puts everything in the cloud together.”

Well let me tell you, there are a certain group of people that have set things in place for any data you send to be able to reach your cloud (it may go to someone else’s cloud if you got hacked) and they even have contingency plans just in case something was to go awry.

Yes, these people have a particular set of skills (had to make a Taken reference, sorry), some of which may surprise you that you already have. Looks like after reading this, it might be time for that career change you were always thinking about.

So, we’ll be going over the mysterious shadow group in the sky, the masterminds powering your crippling addiction, and as usual, we’ll tackle what, who, how, and if you can join the ranks without having to live off a steady diet of ramen noodles to get a degree.

man talking on phone in front of window
Sir, I do cloud computing, that does not mean I have control over the weather.
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Sky of Architects

To answer the question, you may be asking about the big group of people in the sky (where again your information does not go) the people that make like Scarface and put this thing together are the all-mighty Cloud Architects (I’m going to refer to them as CA for short).

But before you can understand what they are, you first have to understand what cloud architecture is. Cloud architecture is a group of resources and services provided by a cloud provider that is structured in such a way as to work in tandem with one another.  

These professionals handle everything running in the cloud and at times handle everything running around it. There are times when they may have to be the developer, negotiator, and consultant so in short, this role wears many hats, again at times they might be wearing several at once.

This role is not to be confused with Cloud Engineers, the difference is engineers focus on the day-to-day operation of the cloud architecture, and the architects focus on the creation of the infrastructure and providing possible solutions for the future of the organization’s cloud.

With so much on the line, you’ll be hard-pressed to find a CA who doesn’t like to have a little coffee in their system to keep focused. A little Java anyone?

young woman mapping out an idea
The one to overview the many…a six-figure salary just means I’m never off the clock.
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Jack of all Clouds

Who uses these Jack of all trades players? Almost everyone, thing, or company you can think of is using a Cloud Architect to build, manage, monitor, and even keep up to date their cloud operation.

There’s not one business (unless it’s brand new and does not have the capital) that isn’t or hasn’t moved to the cloud. Being a CA is such a hot career that its demand is the highest in the world.

This makes sense seeing the number of skills you must have in your toolbox and the number of interactions that you must have throughout the creation and maintenance of the architecture. What are some of these interactions you ask?

Well, if you could imagine going back and forth with DevOps engineers, software developers, and whatever third-party vendor brought on to help deliver final projects that solve organizations’ cloud computing needs.

So, yeah CAs talk to and are wanted by a lot of people. Pimping out that cloud baby.

man seated looking at laptop
After five cups of coffee, three bathroom breaks, and screaming match between me and the monitor, the EC2 instance is finally connects.
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Cloud Before and After

Let’s take a trip back in time before the cloud was even thought of (fun fact, the cloud has been around since the 60s, just not to the extent that we have today), before if you were to start or have a business running, you would have to go out and acquire a space then get your hands on the hardware, software, and accessories.

Not only with making those large purchases you would also have to hire someone or a team to come in and set up everything for you in order to even get your business to run virtually. You would have to worry about how large of a space you could rent and where you were going to be able to have your setup.

Then you would have to worry about ventilation to keep your machines cool and running, and storage for when your business becomes larger and starts to house more data. Eventually, you would either have to expand your space which would see you making more purchases or be forced to stall until something comes along.

This is called on-premises or on-prem for short, since cloud computing is around now, there’s no longer a need to seek out hardware or even software. CAs can simply plan and design a cloud adoption strategy that suits your needs.

So, basically, a CA had a hand in everything you use that connects to the cloud.

Person in a field looking upward to the sky
I just connected a load balancer to my instance, why is it still cloudy out here?
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Architect Skyward

So, now you’re probably pondering,” can I get into this job without a degree?” Well, yeah of course if you’re willing to go out and obtain one or more certifications, again multiple held certs better your odds.

This is a grey area and not sure how much I trust it but if someone had any luck with this please feel free to script a comment below about your experience, it is possible for you to get a cloud computing job with no experience.

Again, I haven’t had any luck and I hold a cert with AWS with little experience. Things you’re going to want to know are networking (both computing and actual networking), working knowledge of operating systems, security, and as you could guess a fundamental knowledge of programming language.

Another thing to consider is that being a CA is a challenging and stressful career, I mean you’re dealing with your fellow humans, and humans are stressful enough without the presents of being on the job.

older fellow thinking to himself
These humans’ human too hard.
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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.

Think you have what it takes to be a Cloud Architect?

Script a comment below on what you find interesting about cloud architecture.

Also, if you found this script on cloud to be interesting and would like to read more then check out my script on things I wish I knew before jumping to the cloud.