5 Essential Tips on Getting Certified as AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (2020)

AWS has launched new version of AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate (SAA-C02) in March 2020 and based on my journey of getting certified, would like to share my experience to make you successful. Here are 5 key tips you can follow to make sure your journey also results in success:

• Tip#1 - Complete an online video course by either of these providers (even if you have hands-on AWS experience for 1-2 years, recommend to do the course as it covers broader spectrum of AWS capabilities/services):
• A Cloud Guru Course: https://acloud.guru/learn/aws-certified-solutions-architect-associate
• Stephane Maarek Course: https://www.udemy.com/course/aws-certified-solutions-architect-associate-saa-c02/
• Neal Davis Course: https://digitalcloud.training/aws-certified-solutions-architect-associate-hands-on-course-saa-c02/
• Tip#2 -Prepare a Cheat Sheet for revision and key reminders:
• Refer to cheat sheet by Neal Davis: https://digitalcloud.training/aws-certified-solutions-architect-associate-hands-on-course-saa-c02/
• Though there are many, recommendation is to prepare your own cheat sheet because in my opinion it is very personalized. For examples, based on your interest and what you remember, you might be good in S3 & VPC, but may need more revision of Autoscaling and hence your cheatsheet will have more focus on Autoscaling.
• Key recommendation: In your cheatsheet, keep screenshot of AWS Services, which you are not comfortable with to keep it as a reminder.
  
• Tip#3 - Practice Exam multiple times:
• Refer to Whizlabs AWS Practice Exams or Neal Davis's Practice Exams
• Whizlabs:https://www.whizlabs.com/aws-solutions-architect-associate/
• Digital Cloud: https://digitalcloud.training/aws-certified-solutions-architect-associate-practice-tests-saa-c02/
• Note that practice exams will only prepare you to develop the mindset of how AWS will ask questions - don't think that these will be exact set of questions.
• Tip#4 - Refer to AWS FAQ, User Guide & White Papers:
• You might get overwhelmed by this but here is my recommendation for FAQ:
• Must Read: EC2, Autoscaling, ELB, EBS, EFS, S3, VPC, Cloudfront,  IAM, RDS (specifically Aurora), SQS, SNS, ECS, DynamoDB, Lambda, CloudWatch
  
• Nice to Read: Elastic Beanstalk, Route 53, API Gateway, Elasticache, Redshift, CloudHSM, Kinesis, WAF, Athena, CloudFormation, EKS, Cognito, AWS Directory Service, CloudTrail
  
• Refer to AWS product home pages if you are not able to go through all FAQs. For example, Kinesis Home Page lists all use-cases, key design patterns (of using data streams, difference between Firehose & Data Stream, etc.)
• Refer to User Guide of following services (core of the exam) - if a particular area is not clear to you:
• Auto Scaling, EBS, EC2, VPC, S3, SQS, RDS
  
• Finally, Tip#5 - Practice, Practice, Practice...
• Nothing can beat practicing & using AWS services even if you are experienced as you don't touch all required services on day-to-day basis.
• Use AWS Free-tier as much as possible or use AWS self-paced labs.
• A trick I used, if certain services you don't want to pay for, is to go through all steps of launching the services but don't submit the final review form.
  

Key success path for any certification is to put a target date (1-2 months of preparation) and focus on a daily basis to make consistent progress. Don't over-prepare and don't procrastinate as well.

Best of Luck!!

Disclaimer:
All data and information provided on this site is for informational purposes only. This site makes no representations as to accuracy, completeness, correctness, suitability, or validity of any information on this site and will not be liable for any errors, omissions, or delays in this information or any losses, injuries, or damages arising from its display or use. All information is provided on an as-is basis.This is a personal weblog. The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer or any other organization.

Emerging role of PaaS (Platform as a service) in building cloud-native applications

Challenges & opportunities for cloud-native applications

Current technology landscape for cloud-native apps is evolving and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solutions are constantly changing to meet the demands such architecture. As customers need flexibility and openness in terms of choosing PaaS solution (without any vendor or technology lock-in), a key need is to provide a neutral view in terms of:

• Which PaaS solution is the right fit for my enterprise (considering unique opportunities and challenges in each enterprise)?
• How does it help in realizing the vision of migrating toward cloud-native apps (with microservices as an architectural style of business services)?

The overarching problem of choosing the right technology solution & partner towards enterprise-level cloud-native apps creates an opportunity for all of us to innovate, build and implement the right-fit solution in a progressive manner.

Capabilities of Platform as a service for cloud-native applications

A reference architecture outlined below denotes the key set of capabilities required for building cloud-native apps and helps in choosing the right platform offering these capabilities:

Key platform as a service (PaaS) solution options

CloudFoundry & Kubernetes are great initiatives towards standardization of PaaS solutions but the consensus towards a standardized approach towards PaaS is still in an early stage.

Considering current market landscape with both serverless and other emerging trends, current PaaS solutions can be visualized as below (there are many variations coming out of options shown here by different vendors):

Conclusion

Cloud-native apps development is an evolving field and considering the novelty of the solution, industry players and standards bodies (such as IEEE) are still firming up standards and best practices. As there is no silver bullet in choosing any solution and enterprise context, governance and required capabilities drive the recommended platform as a service (PaaS) solution in supporting cloud-native applications. 

Disclaimer:
All data and information provided on this site is for informational purposes only. This site makes no representations as to accuracy, completeness, correctness, suitability, or validity of any information on this site and will not be liable for any errors, omissions, or delays in this information or any losses, injuries, or damages arising from its display or use. All information is provided on an as-is basis.This is a personal weblog. The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer or any other organization.

NGINX | Big leap towards cloud-native application platform from a high-performance web-server

NGINX has recently (Sep 6-8) organized NGINX Conference 2017 in Portland (OR) and would like to highlight some of the key announcements made by NGINX experts in this blog. There is a paradigm shift by NGINX in recent years of offering a comprehensive application platform for Cloud-native Microservices not just a high-performance web server and the same message has been consistently delivered in this conference.

NGINX CTO (Igor Sysoev) announced their aggressive strategy to move beyond web server and offer a unique application platform for cloud-native microservice application platform with the same level of high performance. Also, it is supported by almost all major cloud vendors in the market today - AWS, Azure, OpenShift, GCP, etc.

As per w3tech figures, NGINX is now #1 web-server for 1 million busiest sites in the world. NGINX has achieved this only 5 years and it is a great achievement for opensource community.

Also, a lightweight technology like NGINX to support challenging demands of Microservices (such as monitoring, high performance, hot deployment, lightweight containers, less/zero maintenance, etc.) has been highlighted and a similar approach will be extended to the new application platform.

The overall application platform has 3 key components:

1. NGINX Controller

• Security using RBAC (load balancing config by app owners, self-control).
• Centralized traffic management (routing, push button LB addition, upstream servers management, SSL keys management).
• Centralized monitoring (application metrics, requests per sec, bandwidth usage, consolidated dashboard).

2. NGINX Unit

• A brand new lightweight open-source application server.
• Unique in the industry to support multiple languages in one application server.
• Current beta version supports Python, PHP & Go. Java & NodeJs support to be available soon.

3. NGINX/NGINX Plus Web Server

• High-performance web server, which is the backbone of the entire application platform.

In conclusion, big aspirations by NGINX as a company to move forward aggressively towards establishing themselves as a cloud-native platform. Keep watching NGINX!!

References:

• NGINX Application Platform - https://www.nginx.com/blog/introducing-nginx-application-platform
• NGINX Unit - https://www.nginx.com/products/nginx-unit/

5 Key Takeaways from Google Cloud Next '17 Keynote Session

Technology helps in diminishing physical boundaries and watching Google Cloud Next 2017 keynote session on my TV through YouTube was a great example to prove this theory.

Cloud has been at the top of CxO's priority list and technology events such as AWS's re:Invent and Microsoft's Build 2016 re-emphasized Cloud's perseverance. Google's Cloud Next 2017 continues the trend and here are key takeaways from Google Cloud Next's Keynote on Day 1:

#1 - G-Suite adoption by key industry players in quick time
Google highlighted the adoption of G-Suite (Gmail, Docs, Drive, Calendar) by business powerhouses such as Colgate-Palmolive and Verizon and very excited to point that with good planning, it can be achieved in the timeframe of 3-6 months. 

"Google challenges old notions and showcases that it is possible to move large-scale infrastructure in months as against multi-year approaches."

A quick Google Search reveals that Colgate & Verizon has migrated 28K users & 150K users respectively in months. Read more by clicking here.

G-Suite Solution

#2 - Cloud is an incredible & cool place where everybody wants to go

Google highlighted their Cloud capabilities with examples such as Customer Planet Labs, which takes picture of Earth every 3 hours and stores in Google Cloud.

With increased security, 99.999% up-time, scalability, faster time-to-market, competitive pricing and flexibility, Google Cloud is a promising future and will be putting itself in elite category very soon.

#3 - Future is Fast Data, Analytics, AI, Deep & Machine Learning

EBay ShopBot, which uses AI, deep learning (beyond machine learning), computer vision and natural language understanding to create a great technical differentiator.

Fei-Fei Li (Chief Scientist at Google Cloud AI) talked about many such experiences (such as the scale of thousands of people having their own self-driving cars, using AI to improve the quality of human life). 

Demo of Cloud Vision API was awesome, which extends capabilities from image to video analysis using video intelligence API. 

#4 - Key industry players put faith in Google Cloud
Google invited their esteemed clients to talk about their experience with Google and their passion was contagious.

• EBay - R.J. Pitman talked about Google Home example (along with live demo) as integration with EBay product catalog to find information about products using voice-commands. 
• HSBC - Darryl W (Global CIO) shared their Cloud & Cloud-scale data analytics (over 100 PB of data with large computing needs to do simulations) and their plan to movement towards GCP.
• Disney - Mike W. (CTO) talked about their Cloud-first approach with 500 projects in Cloud involving Image Recognition, Personalization, etc,
• SAP - Talked about SAP HANA (in-memory product), which is now available on GCP. SAP Cloud Platform (uses Cloud Foundry) chose GCP over other vendors considering scalability support & containerization.
• Verizon - Alan D. (VP) talked about G-Suite usage for the 150K workforce.
• Colgate-Palmolive - Mike C. (CIO) talked about using G-Suite for collaboration & workspace productivity.
• Home Depot - Paul G (SVP) talked about moving from on-premises to Cloud along particularly data analytics environment.

#5 - Better uses of money...Eric Schmidt
And, finally Eric S. pointed out that Google put $30B in infrastructure and we should not try to replicate the same and use the money to better use. In his own words:

"We put thirty billion dollars - and I know because I approved it. So it's real, right, into this platform. Please do not attempt to duplicate it.You have better uses of your money. - Eric S."

To conclude, an exciting time ahead in Cloud marketplace with Google launching differentiating GCP capabilities in competition with Amazon's AWS and Microsoft's Azure. Google's cloud roadmap looks very promising and its brand in terms of scalability, reliability, and availability makes Google Cloud Platform a very compelling option. Personally, I believe Google's offering in Big Data, Machine Learning, and AI-related services seems to be their core competence in a highly competitive Cloud marketplace.

My weekend getaway with IBM Bluemix – A cloud platform providing PaaS with DevOps

As my usual ritual of going through technology tweets over the weekend, I got interested in exploring IBM Bluemix (which is based on Cloud Foundry) and decided to have first-hand experience of the same.

For those who do not have context of IBM Bluemix, a very short description is – Bluemix is implementation of IBM's Open Cloud Architecture, built on Cloud Foundry, which enables rapid development, deployment and management of cloud applications.

4 Key Takeaways  - I have summarized key takeaways based on my experience with Bluemix:

Takeaway # 1 – A complete lifecycle for cloud-based software development

• Bluemix does not provide only PAAS but also integrates seamlessly with IBM DevOps Services (which is completely cloud-based for continuous delivery).
• Bluemix can support web application, mobile application, middle-tier services (e.g. cache service) and backend services (e.g. IBM Watson for Cognitive Applications) or system-of-record (e.g. NoSQL database like Mongo or MySQL)

Takeaway # 2 – A seamless integration of Paas & DevOps

• DevOps in true sense -  It facilitates you to code online, track & plan and build & deploy applications completely on cloud platform. Also, it helps to automate unit testing & configure any build tool (Maven, Ant, Grunt, Gradle, npm, shell script) in few steps.
• Workflow driven (aka delivery pipeline) to automatically control build & deploy your application to single/multiple cloud-based environments.

Takeaway # 3 – An open-source based platform to avoid vendor lock-in

• Bluemix is an implementation of IBM's Open Cloud Architecture based on Cloud Foundry, an open source platform as a service (PaaS). Cloud Foundry is not vendor specific & does not lock you into any proprietary or custom cloud implementation.
• You can choose to run Cloud Foundry in Public, Private, VMWare & OpenStack based clouds.

Takeaway # 4 – A future-ready extensible enterprise-level platform for Mobile, Big Data & IoT

• Quickly scale-up like any cloud platform for your tenth or millionth user leveraging cloud services 
• Provides ready-made templates (aka boilerplates), which provides configured runtime environment & predefined services for mobile apps & web apps. Also, scripts (aka buildpacks) available to support targeted PaaS (e.g. Java, Node.js) 
• Can be extended to leverage current & future trends like Mobile, Cognitive Apps, Big Data & IoT (Internet-of-things) based applications.

For people interested in getting their hands dirty, here are detailed set of instructions to experience a sample web application using data cache service:

Step 1 – Get registered on IBM Bluemix & IBM DevOps Services

• I got registered with IBM Bluemix (trial account for 30 days) at https://ace.ng.bluemix.net
• I got registered on IBM DevOps (use existing IBM id or you can link different userid) at https://hub.jazz.net/
• You can explore Bluemix dashboard, which is very user friendly and I liked the UX (though at times, it tends to respond slowly).

 Step 2 – Add DataCache Service using Bluemix Dashboard

• Click on “Add A Service”
• Choose “Web And Application” category from left-hand pane
• Click on “Create”. You can notice that it is free service with terms & conditions (100 MB usage is free).
• Data Cache dashboard is up & running now

Step 3 – Create & Deploy Web Application in Bluemix

• You need to install Cloud Foundry CLI tool from here: http://www.ng.bluemix.net/docs/BuildingWeb.jsp#install-cf  
• You can also fork a project from sample web apps in IBM DevOps Services and build WAR completely from Cloud Environment
• You can also refer to IBM link : http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/cloud/library/cl-datacache-app/index.html
• See snapshot of Web Application - mycachewebbeta (generates WAR using Maven) below, which I created:

• You need to download json-org.jar from IBM site: ftp://public.dhe.ibm.com/cloud/bluemix/datacache/
  (There is also dependency on orgclient.jar but as default runtime for IBM Bluemix is Liberty, it will be available automatically)
  

• Deploy WAR using following commands:

o   Connect to IBM Cloud: cf api https://api.ng.bluemix.net

o   Login to IBM Cloud: cf login

o   Deploy your app: cf push mycachewebbeta -p target\mycachewebbeta-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.war

o   Access your app: http://mycachewebbeta.mybluemix.net

• Bluemix dashboard gets updated with new application:

Step 5 – Bind Web Application & Bind Service

• Click on “mycachewebbeta” web application on dashboard 
• Click on “Bind A Service” link 
• Choose previously created data service

Step 6 – Test the web application for Cache Put/Get

• I have put 2 cache entries using my JSP based utility: http://mycachewebbeta.mybluemix.net/cachetest.jsp?operation=put&value=ankur&key=test2
• To get cache entry value: http://mycachewebbeta.mybluemix.net/cachetest.jsp?operation=get&key=test2
• You can also look at data cache service dashboard by clicking on “Data Cache – qs” on Bluemix dashboard

References

• IBM Bluemix overview - https://www.ng.bluemix.net/docs/#overview/overview.html
• IBM Bluemix Available Services - https://ace.ng.bluemix.net/#/store
• IBM DevOps Services - http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/devops/
• Using IBM DevOps with JAZZ - https://hub.jazz.net/tutorials/jazzeditorjava/   

Disclaimer:

All data and information provided on this site is for informational purposes only. This site makes no representations as to accuracy, completeness, correctness, suitability, or validity of any information on this site and will not be liable for any errors, omissions, or delays in this information or any losses, injuries, or damages arising from its display or use. All information is provided on an as-is basis.This is a personal weblog. The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer or any other organization.

Cloud Computing - The Next BIG Thing in IT

Cloud Computing is a new buzzword in IT industry and if you do some analysis, then you will find out, it is more than just a “buzzword”. It is the next revolutionary thing for IT in forthcoming decade.

So, why the “hype” – its because it offers to solve a complex problem of procuring IT capabilities using on-demand easy-to-use approach, which is scalable, flexible and based on pay-as-you-use basis.

For example, if you are building a web-oriented project, traditionally you need to think of initial capital investment for procuring resources (e.g.hardware box, application server license etc).But using Cloud Computing, you can deploy your Web Application to Amazon EC2 without initial capital investment and you can pay as per usage basis.

Cloud Computing Definition:

A pay-as-you-use computing solution (scalable & flexible) to deliver IT-enabled capabilities (software, infrastructure, platform) as a Service (xaaS) using Internet technologies.

Key benefits: Rapid implementation time (infrastructure is readily available using public cloud), usage based payment services & flexible scalability.

Cloud Services (xaaS)

• SaaS (Software as a Service, ex- Google/Yahoo Mail, Google Docs)
• PaaS (Platform as a Service, ex- Amazon EC2)
• IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service, computer infrastructure as a Service, like storage, network equipment, data center, etc. ex-Amazon S3)

Cloud Computing Solution Types

Cloud solution can be of three types: Public Cloud (where you avail it from third-party) , Private Cloud (you create your own cloud using your infrastructure, ownership lies with you, more secure) and Hybrid Cloud (most viable, combination of both worlds)

Public Cloud Solution: Amazon EC2/S3, Google AppEngine, SalesForce, vmware’s vCloud, Sun Cloud

Private Cloud Solution: vmware vSphere (Cloud OS)

Hybrid Cloud Solution: vmware vSphere with vCloud

I will prefer Private Cloud as it is not only Secure but also allows you to use your existing infrastructure resource (using virtualization) for creating your own virtual world. Private Cloud OS like vmware vSphere can give you a great experience in managing the entire infrastructure seamlessly.

Cloud Computing Benefits

• Hardware Cost reduction (vmware offers 15:1 virtualization ratio)
• Pay on Usage basis
• Maximum Resource Utilization
• Scalability & Flexibility (easy scale-up, scale-down)
• Reduced Environmental Impact (Green data centre)
• Reduced Operational Cost
• Reduced Other Cost (70-80% reduction in datacenter space, power, cooling infrastructure)

Cloud Computing Concerns

Security (on Public Cloud), New technology, Legal Issues/Privacy (in Public Cloud), Dependence on constant connectivity (Internet Availability in Public Cloud),  Tranparency with Service Provider (in Public Cloud), Actual Cost (pay as you use may not be cheap at times in Public Cloud)

Conclusion

Use Cloud Computing by developing a clear cloud computing strategy (long-term) and use incremental approach by targeting short/medium term goals aligned with your long-term strategy. Also, analyze your applications and build portfolio of them as per their suitability for private/public cloud alongside.

Disclaimer:

All data and information provided on this site is for informational purposes only. This site makes no representations as to accuracy, completeness, currentness, suitability, or validity of any information on this site and will not be liable for any errors, omissions, or delays in this information or any losses, injuries, or damages arising from its display or use. All information is provided on an as-is basis.This is a personal weblog. The opinions expressed here represent my own and not those of my employer or any other organization.