I learn all this new tech, I say, "Build the foundation, learn the old tech,
because the new tech is really just the old tech that's been virtualized." And why do I like going
back to the old tech? The old tech is much more complicated to learn. For example, on the cloud,
if I wanted to set up a Linux instance, I click a few buttons and it's done. But if I need to build
the Linux's system in a data center, I've got to take the server. I've got to install Linux,
I've got to configure it, patch it. And I've got a lot more work to do.
See when you do these things and you build things from scratch the first time
and you integrate these things together, you learn how the end to end system works. Okay.
So let's define what is a cloud architect. A cloud architect is someone that meets at
the client, takes their business' legal, technical, and regulatory requirements,
analyzes their current systems, analyzes their goals and designs a solution to meet those
goals. So, what is it you're analyzing? You're analyzing the current systems.
And what are these current systems? They are network and they are data center. What is a
cloud? A Virtualized network in the data center. So if you want to be great at the new tech,
the cloud, master the old tech. So that's why when we train cloud architects, we do a lot of
work with the old tech. So let's talk about the old tech and you'll see it's just new tech too.
So what is the network? The network is as follows; routers, switches, cabling, and WAN connections,
firewalls, and IDS/IPS systems. And guess what? You know what? You're going to use
these same systems on the cloud, they're just going to be virtualized. Now, what else is in
the data center? Well, you've got load balancers, servers, server virtualization, and containers,
you've got Linux servers, you've got Winix servers. You've got file storage,
basically server message block for windows and you've got NFS for Linux. You've got active
directory for authentication. What are those services using in the cloud? The same things.
So now let's talk about why we use the old tech to train the new tech. See, it's very easy on the
computing world, in the cloud world to do things. For example, you can set up a computer instance or
a virtual machine, like an EC2 instance in a matter of seconds. You click a few boxes
and it's even got the operating installed. Wow, I mean, that's great, but let's take a step back.
Let's think of the network in the data center way. Now we've got to build it all from scratch.
We have to learn it all from scratch. We have to learn how all the pieces and parts fit together
because in the traditional environment, we have to design it and then we have to build it. And
guess what? You have to do the same designs on the cloud. You just don't have to do as
much of the build because the cloud provider does it. So it's really simple and elegant.
So, why do we go back to this? If you learn the network and you learn the data center,
you know the cloud. So let's think about it this way. We like our students to learn routers and
switches the Cisco way, the Juniper way. Why? Because that's all the networking in the cloud.
And when you learn how the network works, when you learn about the WAN connections,
when you learn about QoS, when you learn about meaning traffic part organization,
for example, and when you learn about rate limiting. When you learn about IP addressing
and IP sub-net design and addressing plans for the organization, and you understand routing,
how the IGPs like OSPF and the EGPs like BGP, you're now in a position to understand the cloud.
And we've actually set up that in between the organizations that have overlapping IP addresses,
or for example, connected to the internet or for the other reasons you're not using that, now
you know how it works. So you can't design systems that you don't know how they work.
So we like people to get a deep fundamentals and basically the network, because that is the
enabling technology that makes everything possible. And in my 25 plus year career,
I'll tell you, do you know when things break down? When somebody didn't think the network through.
And typically speaking, it's because they never worked on a network before.
So now let's take a step back. In the data center, we've got these big load balancers,
these big systems, usually from F5, but other companies make them as well. We're dealing with
servers. Now what do we do with the servers in the data center? We take these servers, we typically
install a hypervisor which enables virtualization, and we create our virtual machines. And then we
build these virtual machines. So when you know how to do that, imagine how easy it is to spin up an
EC2 instance unaided with cloud. And now you know what it is. And now you understand virtual machine
sizing and performance because you built it and you've learned it and you've learned the old tech.
So what is the cloud? It's the old tech that's been managed or partially managed for you by the
cloud provider. So when you master the old tech, you get to the cloud and it's like, wow, this is
super simple. When you've got strong fundamentals, everything else becomes easier when you lay it on
top. So let's delve a little deeper on this. If you know the modules, then you know the tech.
Now you're outside of the different position. You're moving out of the solutions architect world
into the cloud architect role. Why do I say this? Let's say you need a virtual machine. Guess what?
If you need a virtual machine on a cloud provider, you just need to see which virtual machine is the
cloud provider selling. Say, for example, I needed a virtual machine with 128 cores
and four terabytes of DRAM. If I know that I need that virtual machine because it's exactly
what they're running in the data center, and it's an optimal capacity in the data center.
And I want one with the cloud, I'm going to use the same type of virtual machine.
So what do you do? I look up a virtual machine at the service providers. Maybe I go to the AWS
webpage and maybe it's an X1e.32 xlarge. Or maybe I go to the Azure page and I see that it's an
M128S. The functional equivalent is a virtual machine. So whether they're virtual machines
sitting on a VMware ESXi server on a data center, or it's sitting in GCP, sitting on Azure or AWS,
it really doesn't matter because you know what the tech is. So I teach old tech to teach new
tech because I approach every architecture the same way I always do. Start with the customer.
What does the customer desire? What are their business [inaudible 00:06:29]? What are their
pain points? What are their goals? Okay, now take a step back. Evaluate the current systems.
If you don't understand the current systems, you can't evaluate them. So go evaluate their current
systems. How much throughput is going through their network? What does their routing look like?
What is their storage environment look like? What is their compute environment look like? Is it over
capacity? Is it under capacity? What are the size of their system? Can they scale it down,
scale it up? What do you need to do? How much load balancers are they using? How
much internet bandwidth are they using? What are their private lines look like?
When you get an assessment of the goals and the current state, you can plan it for the
future state. So now you know what you need to do to go from the data center to analyze it. Now
when you go to the cloud, you've got two options. Option one, which is going to be what 90% of the
people do, because they just lift and shift. They basically take their stuff from the data center
and migrate it to the cloud. Pretty simple. If you know exactly what this is, you know exactly
how to copy it over and we'll produce this and show you how to do this on another video.
Or you can evaluate the current systems and say, "Hmm, this NoSQL database that
you have could go to the cloud." Maybe we choose a managed server because we don't want to manage
servers. So we could say, well, let's look at it, Azure, NoSQL. AWS, dynamoDB. Google, Hobby
Bigtable. Same functional equivalent. See when you know what the things are that you're moving,
moving into their end location is very easy. And then the cloud provider really becomes as a
service provider. Same way a building architect would design a building and say it needs to be
a certain height, a certain strength. And it knows to pick certain materials.
That's what they do. They do, this is how I want my materials. Now when you build it, it really
doesn't matter where you're buying the steel from or where you're buying the concrete from
or where you're buying the glass or the building from, you just know what you need, the parts.
So that's the same way we approach cloud architecture. The way we'd approach any
other architecture, network architecture, cloud architecture. Figure out exactly what you want,
figure out how to replace it in the cloud with ideally a better solution.
And there you've done it. You've designed the perfect cloud architecture solution. So if you
want to be a cloud architect, you must understand the systems that make the cloud possible, which
is the network and the data center. So learn the old tech and you'll be a master at the new tech.
Thank you so much for watching this video. Let me tell you about some free things we
do at Go Cloud Architects for the cloud computing community. Well, every Monday and every Thursday,
we have a completely free, How To Get Your First Cloud Architect Job Webinar. And we
will teach you the steps that are necessary, the things that you need to learn in order to
get your first cloud architect job. The link for these free webinars is in the description below.
Now, every Tuesday, we have a completely free cloud architect challenge, and we invite you onto
this cloud architect challenge. You will interview me like you would a real CEO in a real business.
And then you will interview the technical team, which will be me pretending to be a technical
professional. You will figure out my current state, my business challenges and my goals.
And then together with a group of people, you'll design a cloud architecture to meet my needs. And
you know what? You're going to present it back to me like you would to the customer in real life.
So if you want to know if you're ready to get your first cloud architect job or your first solutions
architect job, attend our free cloud architect challenge, and you're going to learn immediately.
I'm also going to let you know that we're going to be doing a lot more
life returning on our YouTube channel. So please subscribe and hit the bell.
We are going to be bringing in industry experts and having conversations with experts from
some of our connections throughout the world. So we want to make sure you've
got the best learning experience and that's going to be completely free on our channel.
Now, if you're working on certification, we've got you covered here completely free.
We have an absolutely free, complete AWS certified solution architect associate program
and ebook. The link is in the description below, complete. And if you're looking to pass the AWS
certified solution architect professional, we again have a completely free course.
The link is in the description below. And if you're working on the AWS advanced networking
certification, or want to get some better networking fundamentals, which we highly
encourage, and we have a completely free AWS advanced networking course. The link is in the
description below. So please take advantage of some of these free training options.
Please come to some of our free webinars and build that cloud and computing career of your dreams.
We look forward to seeing you in another video and we wish you the best success in your career.