I just finished teaching my Azure Master Class for Cloud Solution Architects and wanted to provide a quick recap:
Motivation
The motivation for organizing this class was three-fold:
- Like many companies, AIS has many open CSA (Cloud Solution Architect) positions that we are unable to fill. So the only solution is to take folks with a strong background in non-cloud environments (on any development stack for that matter) and “rewire” their brains for cloud computing 😊
Note – Please refer to Gartner’s cautionary note [1] about Azure (the only note of caution in what is otherwise a very positive report on Azure). Gartner claims that that lack of deep technical expertise is impacting adoption. - An effective CSA needs an understanding of a broad array of key concepts. Even though new features are being added to the Azure platform every day, the key concepts of availability sets, fault and upgrade domains and managed identity don’t change that often. My goal was to discuss each of these concepts in depth along with practical tips, guidance, and pitfalls.
Note – Please refer to the list of key concepts [2] that I covered during this class. - Engender a “Cloud Thinking” mindset. Cloud thinking is a mindset that goes beyond moving an existing application to the cloud (lift-n-shift) or starting out using a cloud-native service like Functions. Cloud thinking is a solution-focused approach to building cloud applications that maximizes the benefits that the cloud has to offer, including considerations like monitoring, cost, governance, HA and of course, compliance and security.
Format
- The class spanned three intense days.
- No hands-on lab – I expected the attendees to fork the repo and work through the samples on their own time. I also encouraged attendees to review Azure Essentials before attending the class.
- I focused on building a conceptual understanding of key Azure topics. I relied on concept slides combined with focused demos.
The trend of making applications serverless is on fire! And it’s not just hype…going serverless makes the administration, monitoring and debugging of code so much easier that developers all around are flocking to use it in one way or the other.
Two years ago, the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC) came to AIS with an outdated online budgeting tool called the “Texas Reality Check” for middle and high school students. The application, designed to give students a clear sense of how much their desired future lifestyle will cost and what education and career choices will support it, was plagued by performance and accessibility issues…and its young target demographic was simply tuning it out.
The debate is over. Public cloud infrastructure will become the backbone of Enterprise IT. But are you ready to make the shift? Do you have the trained staff, or the personal cloud experience, to make this transition successfully?
