You're considering a career in Cloud Computing. What skills should you focus on developing?

I believe that if you are just starting your career in cloud computing along with any one of the CSPs you should also know networking (basics of routing, IP addresses, ports, etc), few programming languages (python, java, javacript, etc), linux (basic linux commands, file systems, etc) and a few automation tools such as ansible, jenkins, terraform, chef, puppet, k8s, etc

To have a career in Cloud computing, it is vital that you learn at least one of the major cloud providers such as AWS, Azure or GCP. You should build a fundamental understanding of compute, networking, storage and databases in general and rest everything in Cloud is built on top of these. Fundamental understanding means that you should learn what virtual machines are, what is IP address, what is object storage and file storage, what is relational and non relational databases etc.

If you are an IT professional or a computer scientist, you already have some knowledge about computing. This knowledge is transferrable to the cloud (like a migration from on-premises to the cloud!). You will of course learn technical specificities that applies to the cloud only, but this knowledge will stack up with your legacy one, not replace it. You'll understand the new possibilities offered by cloud computing.

*Cloud platforms: Familiarity with major cloud platforms like AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform is essential. Understanding their core services, including storage, compute, databases, and networking, is a plus *Security: Cloud security is paramount. Skills in IAM (Identity & Access Management), data encryption, and compliance are highly sought after *Networking: A strong foundation in networking concepts is crucial for designing and managing secure and scalable cloud infrastructure *Programming: Familiarity with programming languages like Python, Java, or Go can be a valuable asset, especially for automation and scripting *Problem-solving: The ability to identify, diagnose, and troubleshoot cloud-related issues is essential

Understand the basic concepts, principles, and architecture of cloud computing, including different deployment models (public, private, hybrid), service models (IaaS, PaaS, SaaS), and key technologies (virtualization, containers, serverless. Familiarize yourself with networking fundamentals and cloud networking services such as VPCs, subnets, routing tables, load balancers, and DNS management. Learn about cloud security best practices, compliance standards, identity and access management (IAM), encryption, firewall configurations, and monitoring for security threats. Gain proficiency in automation tools like Terraform, Ansible, or AWS CloudFormation to provision and manage cloud resources programmatically.

As per my perspective, this very trickiest question. You must be knowing key concepts of different cloud providers and should be able to assess what best fits you. As per my perspective, you should be knowing key features, functionalities provided by cloud and what you can do with it at high level.

Cloud Platforms: Learn AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud. Programming Languages: Master Python, Java, or JavaScript. Automation & IaC: Understand Terraform or AWS CloudFormation. Containers & Orchestration: Learn Docker and Kubernetes. Networking & Security: Grasp VPCs, IAM, encryption, and compliance. Monitoring & Optimization: Use CloudWatch or similar tools. CI/CD: Implement Jenkins or AWS CodePipeline.

In my experience, first it must be identified, what is/are your use case(s), what is estimation w.r.t. input request, persistence size, # of years of data to be stored, consistency vs eventual consistency etc. Secondly, whether you application should be cloud agnostic? Do you want to lift from one cloud and work in another(I agree, its not straight forward, the way I am trying to elaborate). This is the outcome of series of brainstorming, trade offs vs value additions, what is technically feasible and importantly is it aligning to what customer is looking for? If we are able to answer these, we can find they way, what and how it can be done.

Cloud architecture sounds like a heavyweight term, however in reality it is not. If you want to build a career in Cloud computing, Cloud architecture is something you should get your hands on. Cloud architecture is a practice to combine multiple technology components together on cloud in order to form a meaningful outcome. This outcome can be a mobile application, web application, data pipeline, ML pipeline or any meaningful usecase. AWS provides a well architected framework which allows you to assess your architecture/company against a set of well defined principles. This framework is important for cloud architects. I would say, Cloud architecture is mandatory to learn if you want to build a career in cloud computing.

This might be one of the most focus point one should learn, bad cloud architecture has costed thousands of dollars/euros in inefficiency of cloud use. Having a proper cloud architecture and learning all the cloud services that the provider provides is important, not only might save money to the company but also engineering resources

Cloud architecture refers to the design of systems that leverage cloud computing services. It defines how various cloud components, including hardware, software, and networking resources, interact to create a functional cloud environment. This architecture plays a vital role in ensuring the scalability, security, and performance of cloud-based applications.

The traditional way to learn cloud architecture is to study and pass cloud providers certifications. That is for the theoretical knowledge. At the same time, it is important to practice and get familiar with building a cloud architecture. That is the practical knowledge. All cloud providers provide free credits for you to play with. Also some services are free to use completely.

Service Selection: Understand which cloud services and components best suit your project requirements. Configuration & Integration: Know how to configure and integrate cloud services effectively. Performance Optimization: Optimize the performance and reliability of cloud architecture. Best Practices & Standards: Follow industry best practices and standards for cloud development. Frameworks & Patterns: Utilize cloud architecture frameworks and patterns like AWS Well-Architected Framework or Azure Architecture Center. By mastering these aspects, you can design and implement robust, scalable, and efficient cloud architectures that meet the needs of your projects and adhere to industry standards.

Cloud security is all about protecting data, applications, and infrastructure in the cloud. Breakdown of key areas: * Shared responsibility: You manage your data, security configurations, and access controls. The provider secures the underlying infrastructure. * Encryption: Scramble data at rest and in transit to ensure confidentiality even if intercepted. * Identity and Access Management (IAM): Set strong passwords, enforce multi-factor authentication, and grant least-privilege access to minimize unauthorized entry. * Compliance: Adhere to relevant data privacy regulations depending on your industry and location. * Threat detection and response: Continuously monitor for suspicious activity and have a plan to respond to security incidents.

Learn and use best practices from the start so get familiar with security in depth. Security in depth is an architecture in several layers. Each layer is a security feature that has to be implemented. This design will protect your data through these layers because an attacker would need to pass all of them until he reaches your data. The icing on the cake is to encrypt your data so even if they are stolen, they could not be exploited!

Threat Awareness: Understand various threats like unauthorized access, data breaches, malware, and DoS attacks. Security Measures: Implement encryption, firewalls, identity and access management (IAM), auditing, and monitoring. Compliance Adherence: Ensure compliance with relevant regulations and standards. Cloud Platform Tools: Utilize security features and tools provided by cloud platforms. By focusing on these areas, you can effectively safeguard your cloud applications and infrastructure against potential security risks and ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of your data and systems.

Choosing to focus on Cloud Automation can significantly elevate your career in cloud computing. Reasons why you should consider it: 1. Automation Tools Mastery: Learn tools like Terraform and Ansible. For instance, automating the deployment of a multi-tier application across cloud services can save hours and reduce errors. 2. Scripting Skills: Understand scripting languages such as Python or Bash to create custom automation scripts. Imagine automating your cloud backups - it's both a time saver and a risk reducer. 3. Integration Practices: Grasp how to integrate various cloud services using automation for seamless workflows.

Cloud automation streamlines cloud management by using tools to handle repetitive tasks automatically. Key Benefits: * Reduced manual work: Automate provisioning, configuration, and management of cloud resources like servers, storage, and databases. * Faster deployments: Automate workflows to deploy applications and updates quicker, accelerating development cycles. * Improved consistency: Define processes as code for consistent configurations, minimizing errors and ensuring compliance. * Increased efficiency: Automate scaling cloud resources up or down based on demand, optimizing costs. * Self-service capabilities: Provide secure self-service portals for developers to access and manage cloud resources on their own.

As per my experience, with frequently changing and ask from *ops(devops, devsecops, ...), most of organization is looking for a person who knows high level of everything. So that s/he can be cross trained, reskilled ASAP and productive to mitigate/achieve the milestone. And to get rid of repetitive jobs, like deployments, updates etc., automation jobs is the key to ease everybody's life. Manual interventions should be minimal(in ideal case which does not happen many a times, but one step towards can make a difference)

Task Automation: Automate repetitive tasks and processes to save time and resources. Tool Proficiency: Learn popular cloud automation tools like Terraform, Ansible, Chef, Puppet, Jenkins, and Kubernetes. Scripting & Configuration Management: Utilize scripting languages and configuration management tools to streamline operations. Orchestration: Implement orchestration techniques to coordinate complex workflows and deployments. Continuous Integration & Delivery (CI/CD): Implement CI/CD pipelines for rapid and reliable software delivery. By mastering these automation techniques and tools, you can enhance the efficiency, scalability, and reliability of your cloud solutions while reducing manual effort and potential errors.

* Cloud-native development: Focus on building applications specifically for the cloud, leveraging its scalability and elasticity. * Supported languages: Popular languages like Python, Java, Go, and .NET are widely used for cloud development, often with cloud-specific libraries and frameworks. * APIs and SDKs: Utilize cloud provider APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) and SDKs (Software Dev Kits) to interact with cloud services and automate tasks. * Infrastructure as Code (IaC): Define and manage cloud infrastructure through code (e.g., Terraform), enabling version control and automated deployments. * Serverless computing: Develop and deploy code without managing servers, allowing for a pay-per-use model and faster development cycles.

Using tools such terraform or Pulumi or direct interaction with Cloud provide api is all good to have, some experience in python won't hurt for sure. but the most important skill I would say is the understanding on how cloud architecture works including cloud networks and much more.

In my experience, this is a very later stage of cloud application development. It is assumed that necessary due diligence is done w.r.t. Requirement, estimations(not efforts to complete the application, but need # of requests/second to cater, is persistence needed, duration to store the data if needed, response time etc.). And when we have inputs for most of thing, we can think of technology stack which can cater this. We can use polyglot programming too, if we want to harness features from different programming language and ease developers like. Again, its comparatively easy to develop an application, but focus should be how effectively can I maintain it in long run.

Language Proficiency: Become proficient in cloud programming languages like Python, Java, JavaScript, Node.js, .NET, Ruby, or PHP. Framework Understanding: Understand cloud-specific frameworks and libraries for building applications and interacting with cloud services and APIs. Tool Familiarity: Learn how to use cloud programming tools and environments provided by cloud platforms, including IDEs, SDKs, libraries, and runtimes. By honing your skills in these areas, you'll be well-equipped to develop, customize, and optimize cloud applications and solutions, leveraging the full potential of cloud computing platforms.

The cloud fundamentals knowledge is transferrable from one cloud provider to another. Start by learning one and it will be much easier when you switch to another one. New services are released frequently so you'll have to keep an eye on updates. If you earn a certification, these updates will come as part of its renewal so it is a good way to stay informed!

Many of the mentions are great, but one point to mention is that Pre-cloud experience is very important also, going back to the OSI model All 7 layers from physical to application, having good understanding or at least basics of each layer.