Azure versus AWS versus Google. Multi-cloud versus hybrid cloud. Private cloud versus public cloud.
Which cloud platform should I learn? If you want to know, this video is for you.
Hi, my name is Michael Gibbs and I'm the founder and CEO of GoCloud Architects,
and we're an organization that's dedicated towards building high-performance cloud computing
and networking careers. Personally, I've been in the technology field for over 25 years
and I've been helping others get their first tech job or get promoted in tech for over two decades,
and there's no better feeling in the world when someone calls you and says, "I got cloud hired."
So today we're going to talk about which cloud you should learn. And this is a question that people
ask me, literally speaking, every day. And when one says, "Should I learn Azure? Should I learn
Amazon Web Services? Should I learn Google?" And I say, "Don't learn any of them, instead, learn
the cloud." And they ask me, "What do you mean the cloud?" And then I ask them the next question and
I say, "Do you know how to drive?" and they always say yes. And I said, "Have you ever driven a car
that wasn't yours?" And they say, "Yes." I said, "Did you go to special training to drive the car
that was not yours?" And they laugh and they say, "Of course not, it's a car." And I said, "I want
you to take that same attitude towards the cloud. Don't learn a single cloud, learn the cloud."
See that is the secret to building a perfect cloud architect career,
solution architect career, or enterprise architect career. And we'll discuss this in much more depth.
See, here's the thing, the cloud is just a virtual network and a virtual data center.
And when you learn the cloud you always know what to do. See, where people go wrong when they try
to be cloud architects or solution architects or cloud engineers is they do the following.
They learn the name of a service and how to configure that service because that's what
certification training is. Here's an EC2 instance, here's how to configure it. This is an S3 bucket,
here's how to configure it. But that doesn't teach you anything. That kind of knowledge of, this
and how to configure it, that's a technician at best. That's not what engineers do.
That's not what architects do. Imagine going to the doctor and saying, "Here's a pill. Here's
the dose. I don't know how to diagnose you. And I don't know what condition I'm treating you for,
but here's a pill." Now that's not how you build a cloud architect. So I want you to learn the cloud.
Now there's a big difference between knowing the cloud and knowing the name of a service
and how to configure it. So if you want to be a cloud architect, a solutions architect,
an enterprise architect, you need to learn the cloud. So it's like driving a car. You don't learn
how to drive a Mercedes. You don't take special training to learn how to drive a Honda and then
take special training for a Toyota. You learn how to drive. So let's talk about this a little more.
Train like a cloud architect. So first and foremost, learn the foundational technologies.
What is that? It is the network and the data center. The cloud is just a network at a data
center. Everything we do in the cloud, we've been doing in the network and the data center for
decades. You want to know something more? Every service we have in the cloud maps to a network
and a data center service. So if you want to know the cloud, learn the services in the first place.
Learn what virtualization is because that's the main computing platform in the cloud.
Learn what containers are because whether you're in the data center or the cloud,
it's the same thing. Learn about storage. Block storage, object storage, file storage. It's the
same in the data center as it is the cloud, the only thing that changes is the name. So learn the
tech, learn about routing, learn about switching, learn about firewalls, intrusion detection,
intrusion prevention, and you know the cloud. Microsoft Active Directory for IM for example,
same on or off the cloud. It's the same concepts. Learn the cloud.
So, I want you to learn it like an architect. Let's say you need a server. In your data center,
chances are you're using a virtual server, maybe on VMware ESXi or using the KVM hypervisor or
something like that. But in your data center, your servers are probably on a virtual machine.
You know what they are in the cloud? In a virtual machine.
And it doesn't matter if it's called an Azure virtual machine, a Google Compute Engine or an EC2
instance. Guess what? They're all functionally equivalent. They are just a virtual machine.
Let's say, for example, you need a not only SQL database because you need a flexibility in your
schema and you need unlimited scalability or near unlimited scalability. You need a NoSQL database.
Now you as an architect need to determine, "Is that Apache Cassandra? Is that MongoDB?
Is it DynamoDB with AWS Cloud BigTable?" It is up to you, the architect, to decide. But if
you don't know what is a NoSQL database and why organizations use NoSQL databases, then you'll
never know what to do. And if it's a hybrid cloud, maybe you're running a Nutanix Cloud in your data
center or an Openstack-Ansible Cloud in your data center and you connect it to the cloud,
you'll still be good because you're going to know the functional equivalents.
I'll give you one more example. Let's say you need object storage. Object storage being a type
of storage area network. And object storage is really unique because it takes the data, it breaks
it down into objects and each object has metadata. It's that metadata that enables you to create data
lake and big data environments. That metadata is very useful. So if you are in your data center
and you want to create a data lake, or you've got a multi-cloud network or a hybrid cloud network,
it's all the same. So it could be your object storage in your data center. If you're on AWS,
it could be called S3. It's the same object storage. If you're on Microsoft it could be
called Blob and if you go on Google, it's called Cloud Storage, but it's all object storage. So
if you know about the object storage and the data center, then you know how to move it to the cloud.
See, it's not about learning the name of the service and how to configure it,
it's knowing what the design is. That's the work of the cloud architect or the solutions architect.
So don't learn a cloud. Don't learn how to drive a Toyota,
learn how to drive a car. And then you drive your Toyota, your friend's Mercedes,
your buddy's BMW. It doesn't matter because you know how to drive. So it's the same thing.
Realistically speaking, let's pretend you're a building architect for an example.
Do you think the building architect knows the brand of steel that's sitting at Home Depot
versus Lowe's versus another store? Of course not, they know they need steel of a certain strength.
You're an architect. If you want to be a great cloud architect, solutions architect,
enterprise architect; learn what it is you're doing. Basically, learn those network and data
center services, learn the cloud and you are a great architect. And then if it's Azure,
great. If it's AWS, great. If it's GCP, great. If it's Oracle, great. If it's Nutanix, great.
If it's Openstack Ansible, great. If it's Palo Alto, you get the point, it doesn't matter.
If you are a cloud architect and you train by learning the cloud, it's just like learning to
drive. You drive a car. You're like me, you travel a lot. You go to the airport, you go to a car
rental and you turn the key and you drive. Guess what? If I talk to a company about object storage,
it's object storage I discuss. I don't mention service names. I discuss the tech and that way
I can select the tech from the store. I view the cloud providers as a vendor because they are.
So if I need steel, I go to Home Depot to buy steel or Lowe's. I buy steel of a certain
strength. If I want to use a cloud service, I go to of the cloud provider and I purchase
what the customer needs or recommend what the customer needs. And it's going to be different
on every cloud provider. But you know what? The tech is the same. The underlying technology is
the same. How the services work are the same, for the most part. The only differences are the name
of them and how to configure them, which you can easily, easily look up on a configuration guide.
Here's what you can't look up on a configuration guide. How things work and how to design them and
how to make them work together. That is the skill of the cloud architect. So if you want
to build an amazing cloud architect career or a solution architect career, it's not about hybrid
clouds. It's not about multi-clouds. It's not about this cloud provider versus this provider.
It's about the cloud. Learn the cloud. Learn all the pieces and parts and components that make the
cloud, the network and the data center possible. And it's up to you, the designer, to find a way to
transform the organization's business through the use of all these wonderful technologies.
This is Michael Gibbs. I'm the founder and CEO of GoCloud Architects and today we're talking about
learning the cloud. I look forward to seeing you in another video very soon. Take care.
It was so nice having you join us for this video today.
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in your technology career. Thank you so much. This is Michael Gibbs from GoCloud Architects.