re:Invent 2025: A Decade of Attending AWS's Biggest Event
After attending AWS re:Invent for a decade, reflections on how the conference, the cloud industry, and my own perspective have evolved
- cloud
- ai
Subject archive
Writing on cloud.
71 essays connected to cloud.
Writing indexMulti-Cloud MCP: One Protocol to Manage Them All
Using MCP to create a unified interface for managing resources across AWS, GCP, and Azure, eliminating the cognitive overhead of cloud-specific CLIs and consoles
- mcp
- cloud
Next Portal: Building an Internal Developer Platform That Developers Actually Use
The architecture behind Next Portal, an open source internal developer platform built to reduce cognitive load rather than add another tool to the stack
- open-source
- cloud
re:Invent 2024: AWS Goes Agent-First
AWS re:Invent 2024 signals a fundamental shift: Amazon is rebuilding its cloud platform around AI agents as first-class citizens
- cloud
- ai
re:Invent 2023: Amazon Bedrock and the Enterprise GenAI Stack
AWS re:Invent 2023 puts generative AI at the center of Amazon's cloud strategy with Bedrock and new services
- cloud
- ai
re:Invent 2022: AWS Bets on Generative AI
AWS re:Invent this year revealed a clear strategic pivot toward generative AI infrastructure, and the cloud landscape is about to change
- cloud
Mastering Cloud Engineering: Published
My first book is published, distilling years of hands-on cloud architecture experience into a comprehensive guide
- books
- cloud
- career
re:Invent 2021: AWS and the $71 Billion Run Rate
AWS re:Invent just wrapped, and the numbers tell a story about cloud dominance that the industry cannot ignore
- cloud
re:Invent 2020: Virtual, Massive, and ECS Anywhere
AWS re:Invent went fully virtual and announced ECS Anywhere, extending container orchestration beyond the cloud and into any infrastructure you operate
- cloud
Terraform 0.13: Provider Requirements Done Right
Terraform 0.13 introduces proper provider source addresses and module-level provider requirements, fixing one of the most persistent pain points in infrastructure as code
- terraform
- cloud
Kubernetes 1.19: The Platform Is Mature
Kubernetes 1.19 extends the support window to one year and moves Ingress to GA, signaling that the platform has crossed from innovation to infrastructure
- kubernetes
- cloud
The World Went Remote Overnight
COVID-19 just forced the largest remote work experiment in human history, and cloud infrastructure is the only reason it is working at all
- cloud
- personal
re:Invent 2019: Outposts, EKS on Fargate, and the Hybrid Future
Key announcements from AWS re:Invent 2019, including Outposts general availability, EKS on Fargate, and what they mean for enterprise infrastructure
- cloud
- kubernetes
Containerizing Enterprise Java: From WAR to Docker
Patterns and pitfalls of containerizing legacy Java WAR applications running on JBoss and WebLogic
- cloud
- docker
The Rise of GitOps: ArgoCD and Flux
GitOps is changing how we think about Kubernetes deployments by making Git the single source of truth for cluster state
- cloud
- kubernetes
Tier-1 Commerce Payment Systems Migration
Migrating payment processing systems to the cloud while maintaining PCI compliance and zero downtime
- cloud
re:Invent 2018: Lambda Layers, Transit Gateway, and the Services That Matter
A practitioner's take on the AWS re:Invent 2018 announcements that will actually change how we build
- cloud
IAM Policies Deep Dive: Least Privilege at Enterprise Scale
Designing IAM policies, SCPs, and permission boundaries that enforce least privilege across hundreds of AWS accounts
- cloud
Lambda, RDS, Oracle on EC2: Hybrid Data Tier Patterns
Designing data tier architectures that bridge serverless Lambda functions with traditional Oracle databases on AWS
- cloud
Kubernetes vs ECS: An Enterprise Container Orchestration Comparison
When to choose Kubernetes and when to choose ECS, based on real experience operating both at enterprise scale
- kubernetes
- cloud
VPC Networking at Enterprise Scale
Designing VPC topologies, Transit Gateway patterns, peering strategies, and security group architectures for hundreds of AWS accounts
- cloud
Akamai-Fronted Web Applications on AWS
Designing enterprise web tier architecture with Akamai CDN in front of AWS origins, including WAF, origin shield, and caching strategies
- cloud
Active-Active Multi-Region Architecture with Route 53
Designing active-active multi-region deployments with Route 53 failover, health checks, and data replication strategies
- cloud
Storage Gateways, EFS, and AWS Batch: Solving Enterprise Storage Challenges
How we designed storage architectures for media workflows using EFS, AWS Batch, and Storage Gateway
- cloud
Terraform as the IaC Standard Across Hundreds of AWS Accounts
How we standardized Terraform across hundreds of AWS accounts with shared modules, remote state, and workspace conventions
- terraform
- cloud
Dockerizing Legacy Apps: From Monolith to ECS
How we containerized a monolithic Java application and deployed it to AWS ECS with a full CI/CD pipeline
- cloud
- docker
- aws
- ecs
Migrating Monolithic Apps to AWS: The 6Rs Framework in Practice
Enterprise cloud migration is not a single strategy; it is six strategies applied systematically across hundreds of applications
- cloud
re:Invent 2016: Serverless Goes Mainstream
AWS re:Invent just wrapped up and the message is clear: serverless is no longer experimental, it is the direction
- cloud
AWS Organizations and Multi-Account Strategy
Designing a multi-account AWS architecture for enterprise workloads using Organizations, SCPs, and IAM patterns
- cloud
Enterprise Migration: Lift-and-Shift vs. Refactor
When to move workloads to the cloud as-is and when to redesign them, learned from real enterprise migration decisions
- cloud
Starting at a Telecom Giant: Enterprise Cloud Architect
My first corporate role in America, designing cloud architecture at enterprise scale
- career
- cloud
Grad School, Research, and Cloud Computing
Reflecting on a year of graduate research, distributed systems learnings, and the widening bridge between academia and industry
- cloud
- career
Red Hat Acquires Ansible
Red Hat acquires Ansible and the configuration management landscape shifts, with implications for how we think about infrastructure automation
- cloud
- terraform
re:Invent 2015: AWS Is Unstoppable
AWS re:Invent 2015 showcased an ecosystem in overdrive, with new services, aggressive pricing, and a vision for cloud that keeps widening
- cloud
Architecting WordPress on AWS: EC2, RDS, and S3
A technical deep dive into the architecture decisions, performance tuning, and lessons learned from running WordPress ecommerce on AWS
- cloud
Kubernetes 1.0 and the Birth of CNCF
Kubernetes hits 1.0 and the Cloud Native Computing Foundation forms, signaling that container orchestration is ready for the enterprise
- kubernetes
- cloud
AWS-Hosted WordPress Ecommerce POC
Building a proof of concept ecommerce site with WordPress, WooCommerce, and AWS services to bridge theory and practice
- cloud
Cloud Computing Research with Dr. Young Lee
Diving into cloud computing research in grad school, exploring virtualization, resource allocation, and the academic lens on distributed systems
- cloud
- career
2014: The Year of Containers
Looking back at a year that fundamentally changed how the industry thinks about deploying and running software
- cloud
- kubernetes
re:Invent 2014: Lambda, Aurora, and the Serverless Future
AWS Lambda might be the most important cloud announcement since EC2 and I am still wrapping my head around it
- cloud
Terraform: The IaC Tool I Have Been Waiting For
HashiCorp just released Terraform and it fills the infrastructure-as-code gap that has been bothering me for months
- terraform
- cloud
Docker 1.0: Production Ready
Docker hits version 1.0 and the container ecosystem is exploding in every direction
- cloud
- kubernetes
Google Announces Kubernetes
Google just open-sourced their container orchestration system and this could change everything about how we run infrastructure
- kubernetes
- cloud
CoreOS: A Container-Optimized OS
CoreOS is rethinking what a server operating system should be in a world built on containers
- cloud
- kubernetes
AWS re:Invent 2013: Announcements That Matter
Following AWS re:Invent remotely and picking out the announcements that will actually change how we work
- cloud
What Microservices Actually Mean
Everyone is talking about microservices but most explanations miss the point entirely
- cloud
Chef vs Ansible: Which Tool?
A hands-on comparison of Chef and Ansible from someone who actually needs to pick one for production infrastructure
- cloud
- terraform
Security Automation: Days to Hours Provisioning
How we cut server provisioning from five days to under four hours using automation and VMware templates
- cloud
Docker Changes Everything About Deployment
Docker 0.1 just dropped and containers are suddenly accessible to everyone, not just kernel wizards
- cloud
- kubernetes
2012: The Year the Cloud Became Real
A year-end reflection on how 2012 marked the turning point when cloud computing stopped being experimental and became the default
- cloud
- personal
VMware, RAID, and Storage Architecture Lessons
Deep lessons from enterprise storage architecture work, including RAID configurations, VMware storage design, and the failures that taught me the most
- cloud
Ansible, Puppet, Chef: The Configuration Management Wars
A practitioner's comparison of the three major configuration management tools and why I think the landscape is about to get interesting
- cloud
- terraform
Google Compute Engine and the Three-Horse Cloud Race
Google just announced Compute Engine at I/O, and suddenly the cloud is a three-way competition between AWS, Azure, and GCP
- cloud
Running a Linux NOC: Chasing 99.9% Uptime
What it actually takes to keep Linux infrastructure running at 99.9% uptime, from the perspective of someone who lives in the NOC
- cloud
- career
AWS DynamoDB: Fully Managed NoSQL Changes the Game
DynamoDB went GA earlier this year and I think it represents a fundamental shift in how we think about databases
- cloud
Linux Containers Before Docker: LXC, Cgroups, and Namespaces
The container landscape before Docker existed, and why LXC, cgroups, and namespaces matter more than most people realize
- cloud
- kubernetes
The Rise of DevOps: When Developers and Ops Stop Fighting
The DevOps movement is breaking down the wall between development and operations, and it is about time
- cloud
Hadoop Is Eating the Enterprise
MapReduce, HDFS, and the big data infrastructure stack are quietly reshaping how enterprises think about data processing
- cloud
VMware Certifications and the Enterprise Virtualization Landscape
Studying for VMware certifications and discovering how deeply virtualization has reshaped enterprise infrastructure
- cloud
- career
AWS CloudFormation: Infrastructure as Code Begins
AWS just launched CloudFormation and the idea of declaring your infrastructure in a template file is quietly revolutionary
- cloud
- terraform
NoSQL Is Having Its Moment
MongoDB, Cassandra, and the database paradigm shift that is making relational purists uncomfortable
- cloud
The Linux Admin Life: RHEL in Production
What day-to-day Linux system administration actually looks like when real systems depend on you
- cloud
- career
Platform as a Service Goes Mainstream
Heroku and the rise of PaaS are changing how developers think about deploying applications
- cloud
OpenStack: The Open Source Cloud Revolution
Rackspace and NASA are building an open source cloud platform and it could change everything
- cloud
AWS Keeps Growing: Spot Instances
Amazon introduces Spot Instances and a student tries to wrap his head around cloud economics
- cloud
VMware vSphere: The Future of Virtualization
VMware renames and reimagines its platform as vSphere 4, and the data center will never be the same
- cloud
Node.js: JavaScript Everywhere
A new runtime called Node.js puts JavaScript on the server and everything I thought I knew about web architecture shifts
- cloud
Studying for RHCE
Deep in Red Hat territory, preparing for the RHCE certification and discovering what system administration really means
- career
- cloud
What Cloud Computing Actually Means
Everyone is talking about cloud computing and nobody seems to agree on what it means so I tried to figure it out myself
- cloud
My First Linux Server
I got my hands on a real Linux server and learned more in two weeks than I did in a semester of classes
- cloud
- career
Google App Engine Changes Everything
Google just opened up their infrastructure to regular developers and I cannot stop thinking about it
- cloud