100 DAYS OF CLOUD ARCHITECTURE – DAY 1 TO DAY 5

For the first five days of the #100daysofcloudarchitecture Challenge, I focused on refreshing my knowledge of Networking fundamentals and Enterprise Architecture concepts and protocols. 

Although this challenge is about Cloud Architecture and my background is in Networking, I believe it is essential to have a strong foundation and be well-versed around enterprise networking, and security.

Some of these concepts apply to on-premises environments, but many others are core technologies of Cloud. 

Along the way, I identified new topics, and I went down the rabbit hole with some of them. I had to remind myself about the plan I already had and FOCUS!

It also took me longer than I expected to study some concepts and protocols that I haven’t used in a while. 

So far, I’ve covered about 80% of the topics/courses I planned to cover. I plan to finish the remaining on days six and seven before starting with Cybersecurity Fundamentals. 

Networking Topics

Here is a list of the topics I covered:

Note: Topics on the right are related to Enterprise Architecture, not Cloud.

Other Things I Learned

On the other hand, last week I listened to multiple podcast episodes while working out or cooking dinner. 

Thanks to one of those podcasts I stumbled upon the profile of Kim Agahian, Director of Cloud Engineering at Oracle

I saw he has a background in Network Engineering, so I decided to contact him through LinkedIn and asked for advice.

He sent me the link to a blog post he published a couple of years ago with a blueprint for breaking into Cloud Engineering.

https://packetpushers.net/how-to-break-into-a-cloud-engineering-career/

I also watched a talk he delivered in NANOG87 about the skillset necessary to become a Cloud Network Engineer/Cloud Architect. 

Thanks to Kam, I also learned about an organization called NANOG (North America Network Operator Group).

According to their website 

“The North American Network Operators’ Group (NANOG) is committed to the ongoing advancement of an open, secure, and robust Internet, by providing a platform that inspires, educates, and empowers our community to meet the ever-changing demands of a global network, in service of building the Internet of tomorrow.”

https://www.nanog.org/

NANOG organizes virtual and in-person conferences that revolve around networking and Internet technologies. 

They also offer a mentorship program. Anyone can apply and get connected to members who can provide guidance on:

• Skill Development
• Career Guidance
• Presenting / Public Speaking
• Leadership Skills

I’m planning to apply to this program after Day 25 of my challenge. 

Anyone interested in becoming a member of NANOG can pay an annual membership fee of 100 USD. Students get a 50% discount and pay 50 USD. 

I found Kam’s information insightful and made me realize how important some networking technologies are to Cloud Architecture.

And last but not least, I want to give a big shoutout to Adrian Cantrill’s Tech Fundamentals course. I loved Adrian’s teaching style. He does a great job explaining networking fundamentals and his graphics and slides are awesome and easy to digest. 

I knew he offered a Tech Fundamentals course but I never had taken the time to go through it. This time I carved the time and took his course and I’m glad I did it. 

Resources

To finish this article, below I’m listing the links to the courses I took and the podcast episodes I listened to this first week. You might find them helpful on your #cloudjourney too.  

LinkedIn Learning Courses:

• Cisco Networking Foundations: IP Addressing – (1 Hour 32 minutes)
• Cisco Networking Foundations: Switching & Routing – (1 Hour 48 minutes)
• CISCO CCNP ENCOR: Architecture, Virtualization, Infrastructure – (10 Hours)
• BGP: Essential Training – (1 Hour 21 minutes)

Other Courses:

Adrian Cantrill’s Tech Fundamentals Course

Podcast Episodes:

Day Two Cloud 189: The Cloud Network Engineer Career Path With Kam Agahian

Day Two Cloud 193: Should You Get A Cloud Networking Cert?

Day Two Cloud 191: Modernizing Cloud Security And Optimizing Costs With Jo Peterson

Let’s Talk Cloud Networking: EP2 – Career Transformation Tips for Cloud Networking and Security Engineers

On Cloud: A Solutions Architect’s View on Cloud and its challenges

On Cloud: Architecting and Optimizing the Cloud for the entire Enterprise