Cloud Computing Demystified for Aspiring Professionals — a review
Cloud Computing Demystified for Aspiring Professionals —
Author David Santana
Foreword Amit Malik
Publisher Packt
Page count — 474
First published — March 2023
Disclaimer:
I received a copy of this publication for review purposes.
Views presented in this review are subjective.
I review the book “as is” — I focus on what I see, read, touch, etc.
Preview of the First chapter is available on Packt website:
https://www.packtpub.com/product/cloud-computing-demystified-for-aspiring-professionals/9781803243313
Some backstory — I’ve got interested in DevOps related topics some years ago, around 2018. In the whole DevOps world there are many buzzwords and areas of specialty that are covered in various detail by various authors.
What I’ve found in my search for Cloud related publications is that there are mostly two types of publications — either a very basic high level of abstraction materials or detailed, low level of abstraction technical publications aimed at experts in any given field of specialty.
I decided to review this publication as one that is positioned somewhere in between those two extremes, as one that serves as a middle ground between newbies and veterans.
Overview
In general terms this is a massive publication. It counts 474 pages as a PDF and is a massive tome in a physical form.
The publication is divided into five parts:
Part 1 — The Journey to Cloud Computing
Part 2 — Implementing Cloud Deployment Models
Part 3 — Cloud Infrastructure Services in Action
Part 4 — Administrating Database and Security on the Cloud
Part 5 — Roadmap for a Successful Journey in Cloud Engineering
Part 1 delves into a history of how Cloud computing came to be as we know it right now, covering laying the foundations for Cloud by Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET) & virtualization technologies, then describing concepts such as High Availability (HA) Tiers and more, including various benefits that one can gain from investing in Cloud technologies. I’ve learned that companies actually work on submerging their data centers in order to cut costs on HVAC.
Part 2 describes three models of Cloud technology utilization — Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS). This part is written clearly, contains graphs that help with understand those concepts thus I think that even non-technical people would be able to understand how those three models of Cloud deployment.
In Part 3 readers may delve into Cloud Infrastructure Services in Action and follow many exercises related to implementing virtual networking & load balancind, setting up site-to-site VPN, launching a VM and do many other exercises related to running an instance of EC2, Azure VM or Google Cloud Compute Engine. I have skim read through this chapter as I was interested in theorethical part of the knowledge, though I may revisit those exercises in the future as time permits.
Part 4 — Administrating Database and Security on the Cloud — is another technical part where readers can learn about more concepts related to utilizing relational vs non-relational databases, building data warehouse & data lake services as well as implementing security controls. As with Part 3 I focused on the theorethical part of knowledge.
Finally Part 5 describes Roadmap for a Successful Journey in Cloud Engineering, spanning various topics related to learning about Cloud technologies, covering topics of self paced learning, community learning resources, mentorship, some argumentation for accreditation & certifications. The interesting module here is the one describing author’s advice on how to become a cloud computing engineer, where many different career paths are described. Albeit short, I would say that it is a perfect finish for a book addressed to “Aspiring Professionals”.
My opinion
I like this book as it is a publication aimed at people “in transition” so to say (myself included), who consider making a career change into Cloud related role or who just want to learn more about Cloud technologies because they need to know the terminology & various concepts used related to Cloud technologies, even at a general level, in order to have a better communication with technologically oriented people.
From such point of view this publication delivers what its marketing promises — by reading this book I learnt enough concepts & terminology to understand Cloud reality. I did not do technical exercises as that was not my focus when reading this book, although I do think that exercises presented are valuable for people whose focus is to consider a career move into Cloud related roles — you can have a taste what is it like to work with Amazon, Azure or Google Cloud technologies and whether this type of work is interesting for you.
The author describes various concepts in an easy to understand way and although there are many acronyms used throughout the book (like HVAC), the author always uses the full name before using the acronym later on. At least I have not found any such occurence, though it’s a big book so there may be some issues here and there, I don’t know. Same goes for grammar & editing — I have no additional comment here, in my opinion the editor did his/her job, as the book is easy to read (although requiring focus in some areas).
So, is it an academic, technical, or maybe a business type of publication?
That’s a good question and here’s my opinion — I’d say that this publication presents a mix of academic & technical knowledge, leaning a bit more into practical technical parts. Is it good or bad, I’m not the one to decide, as I think that such publications as this one are needed to bridge the gap between business people and highly specialized technically oriented engineers.
After all — everyone starts somewhere, and I’m glad that people such as the author of this book actually made some effort to help others in their Cloud-related endeavours.
Can non-technically oriented people get anything from this publication?
I’d say sure, although to be fair I’d say that one would need to possess at least a basic understanding of Information Technology related concepts in order to get the most out of this publication.
Physical vs Digital copy
I have read the physical copy when at home and the ebook when being outside, as the print copy is rather big to carry around. When you get a print copy you can claim a PDF DRM-free copy by providing a proof of purchase, which is a fair policy. There is also an option to get a Packt subscription with a 7 day trial, so you can always try this one out before deciding to buy a given publication.
Ultimately it all depends on your preferences.
Minor gripes
I have some minor gripes when it comes to print copy as well as the digital copy.
When it comes to a print copy I have found that even numbered pages (so called verso, or left hand pages) have this issue with margins where left and right margin or a page is of equal size, but due to the print copy being PUR bound (Polyurethane Reactive or “glue” in general terms), the right margin is being reduced due to binding process. Thus I need to open up the book pretty wide in order to have a decent read and I’m afraid that after some time of such use some pages may come off the binding. In smaller books this may not be an issue, but this book is a lot of paper stacked and glued toghether. Only time will tell.
When it comes to both print & digital copies I’ve found out that some illustrations are hardly legible — especially ones that were originally in color as it’s hard to represents differences between red, green and other colors in shades of black & white. Fortunately, due to the nature of this publication it’s only a minor issue. If it was a publication about graphical representation of data then such an issue would be a major one.
Summary
In summary I think that this is a solid book aimed at people who want to learn more about both the history and background of the Cloud technologies as well as to learn basics about how to operate particular Cloud provider options focusing on Azure, AWS and Google Cloud.
I read it as a person who wanted to learn more about background of Cloud technologies and to grasp specific Cloud related terminology from Azure, AWS and Google Cloud. This publication delivered what I was looking for.
I recommend this book towards people who:
- want to learn more of the theorethical & background side of Cloud computing technologies related knowledge
- consider a transition from a previous job into a Cloud related role, like a DevOps engineer. In such a case exercises provided in this book may be very helpful to them.
- are professional trainers & educators who want to learn more about Cloud technologies to be able to provide better & more diverse education to other people
- just like to learn about modern tech & nerdy stuff
- are course-creators and want to expand their knowledge on Cloud related concepts in order to create better courseware
Closing thoughts
I’ve heard opinions that modern IT & DevOps books are good for 2–3 years when it comes to knowledge presented, as the whole industry is so dynamic that technical knowledge can be outdated really fast. In this interpretation I’d say that this publication will be good for at least 5 or so years, as theorethical knowledge presented here is rather safe from being outdated. Maybe in time exercises provided within will do grow “old” of sorts due to dynamic development of Cloud related technologies, but for the time being… hop in for the ride, it’s a good one.
Thanks for reading,
MJ
