How I learned Cloud Platforms - AWS

About me

A software developer at an insurance company. Dog owner and curious person.

Why I wanted to learn Cloud Platforms - AWS

Everyone kept talking about the cloud. Cloud this, cloud that. It wasn't until I really dug in that I saw the capability and ease the cloud provides for new code and application deployment.

How I approached learning Cloud Platforms - AWS

Well, rather than start slow, going through GUI after GUI (which has its uses), I looked at how an enterprise might deploy a full stack, operational solution. This caused me to become aware of IaaC or Infrastructure as Code, which really brought together all the different resources of cloud to one viewpoint. From there, it's history.

Challenges I faced

GUI's. They're great if you're administrating an application stack, but terrible when trying to deploy something from the ground up.
Sometimes, also, you have to only use GUI's, as IaaC might not have made available a certain component configuration available for modification through IaaC yet (since it is also relatively new).

Key takeaways

Become familiar with the api documentation of AWS cloud components. Like AWS has this documentation for cloud formation: https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AWSCloudFormation/latest/UserGuide/aws-template-resource-type-ref.html.
They will usually have all the key takeaways or nuances or bugs that each cloud component has itself or interacting with other components.

Tips and advice

Check the documentation of whatever you want to do and DON'T BE AFRAID to Google.
Most answers or derivative questions have been answered somewhere online.

Check Google search tips and operators. Take the time to read through formal documentation and approaches that have worked OR failed from others and why.

Final thoughts and next steps

Most "full" stack applications have 4 core components: Front End (website pages, mobile application, console application), Middle Tier (API / servers to talk to the app and talk to your database), Back End (database to store information or files, can be as simple as Google Drive really), Security (most applications want logins, etc.)
Now, just think of an application you might realistically use yourself.