What Is A Cloud Engineer and How Do You Become one?

In this article, we will learn about What is a Cloud Engineer and how did you become an engineer?. Cloud computing is a term used to explain anything that involves the delivery of hosted services over the internet. In other words, cloud computing allows the user devices to access data over the internet from remote servers and databases. In a cloud computing platform, the communication between the front end and the back end is managed by central servers, and this is done via an internet network connection that links them both (front-end with back-end). Hence, cloud infrastructure involves the hardware and software for properly implementing cloud computing models.

Some of the examples of cloud computing include the below:

• Google Docs and Microsoft Office 365- can be accessed through the internet. The user can access the spreadsheets and presentations stored in the cloud anytime and anywhere. It enhances the productivity of an individual.
   
• Email, Skype, and WhatsApp also allow users to access data remotely, which can be accessed from any device whenever desired.
   
• Zoom- is a popular tool for audio and video conferencing. The data of these meetings are saved in the cloud, enabling the users to access this data anytime. 
   

Why is Cloud Computing becoming so popular?

Cloud computing’s popularity is increasing daily due to its distinct advantage over traditional web hosting. Below are the main advantages of rising usage and shifting to cloud computing platforms.
These are as follows:

• Managed service- cloud computing is a fully managed service, and the user requires internet access and a computer to use the cloud computing platform.
   
• On-demand service implies that a user can access large amounts of computing power on demand. It is sold at per hour or minute rates fixed by the cloud computing service providers.
   
• Elasticity- the user can have as little or as high a service as possible based on the usage or requirement at any point in time. There is a vast amount of elasticity attached to cloud computing.

Before we understand the skills required to become a cloud engineer, we must look at the types of cloud services.
The types and a brief description of cloud services are mentioned as follows:

• Infrastructure as a Service(IaaS)- is a service where enterprises rent servers for computing and storage in the cloud. The users can run any operating system or application on these rented servers without maintenance and without incurring any operational expenses for these rented servers.
   
• Platform as a Service(PaaS)- in this service, hardware and software tools are made available to the user over the internet by a third-party service provider. These are tools mostly needed for application deployment and are hosted on the infrastructure of the PaaS service provider.
   
• Software as a Service(SaaS)- is a cloud-based software model, and it is a way of delivery of applications over the internet as a service.

Career options with a Cloud Computing knowledge base

Cloud computing offers several types of career prospects. It comprises several roles: IT, management, application development, business analysis, network, security, web development, and many others. The jobs in this field are on the rise. Some of the most popular jobs are:

• Cloud Engineer
• Cloud Project Manager
• Cloud Architect
• Cloud Developer
• Cloud Administrator
• Cloud Consultant
• CIOs

This list of jobs is illustrative and not exhaustive. 

Our primary focus in this blog is to discuss the essential skills required to become a cloud engineer. There is a surge in the hiring of cloud engineers, and tech giants like Amazon, Google, IBM, Microsoft, and others are making considerable investments in their cloud infrastructure, resulting in high demand for manpower resources from their end. The demand for cloud professionals is further expected to rise by leaps and bounds in time to come, and so would be the requirement for the jobs like those of a cloud engineer. You will work with cross-functional teams as a cloud engineer, including software, operations, and architecture. Hence, the options to choose from are many when developing skills as a cloud engineer. In the remaining blog, we will try to understand the skills required keeping the benefit of having varied options in mind. Let us focus on the essential skills needed to become a cloud engineer. We will discuss these in detail after understanding the broad skills that you must possess.

Cloud Engineer Skills

Listed below are some of the must-have skills:

• Technical skills– which include knowledge of computing and HTML.
   
• Financial skills and business concepts– which refer to the awareness of cloud engineers with terms like ROI, business plans, and marketing strategies.
   
• Data analysis– ability to handle big data and use ERP systems.
   
• Data security skills would mean understanding network security, encryption, authorization, and protocols.
   
• Project management skills-refer to the knowledge of risk management, service agreement, and other processes as applicable.

Now, let us have a look at cloud computing skills in detail one by one:

• Understanding the Linux operating system (OS)– Linux is an open-source operating system that can be used to meet business needs. The first and most crucial step in becoming a cloud engineer is to equip yourself with Linux OS. One primary reason for learning Linux is keeping in mind the fact that most organizations are turning to Linux to build technologies. Practicing Linux will help you build strong fundamentals of this OS and hence will help you as a cloud engineer. If you develop your command and strength in Linux OS, you can survive and thrive in the cloud domain with this single cloud engineering skill.
   
• Programming skills- learning an appropriate programming language is a must for a successful cloud engineer. Few languages should be considered for developing your proficiency, and the ones in demand include the following.
• ASP.NET- which provides solutions across web browsers and web pages. It is a must-have framework. 
• SQL- for data processing, manipulation, and storage
• PHP used to automate websites with multiple functions
• XML with Java programming- for data description
• Python- traditional programming languages like python are also in demand. It is used to create, analyze, and organize large data volumes.
• Ruby- is another traditional programming language that has recently gained prominence. 
• Database skills– consider investing your time in developing database skills, including knowledge of database platforms and language queries. MYSQL and Hadoop are popular in this space.
   
• Networking skills and Internet Protocols-It is the job of the cloud engineers to make the process easy for end-users. Networking skills can assist and take a long way in meeting this objective of network management and improving network responsiveness. Knowledge of networking and how the internet works are crucial to cloud-related roles, including the role of cloud engineer. It is imperative to learn networking fundamentals and know about virtual networks for all cloud-centric roles.
   
• DevOps and Containerization- DevOps, as the name suggests, combines two approaches, i.e., software development and operations. It is a skill that is in high demand. Understanding the entire development lifecycle starting from planning to implementation and maintenance, is highly beneficial for the role of a cloud engineer. Containerization means extracting applications from one another for easy deployment on the cloud. Hence, learning about containers, dockers and Kubernetes gives a good push toward becoming a cloud engineer.
   
• Understanding Virtualization-it refers to running software applications on virtual machines, which reduces hardware dependence and helps in being fault-tolerant. Learning virtualization is about equipping yourself with the most desirable skill in the field of the cloud.
   
• Security and Recovery-cloud security is one of the most challenging domains in cloud computing. It requires critical issues to be addressed, like a data breach or disaster recovery. Today’s enterprises have a tremendous amount of focus on protecting their data and applications, so cloud security is of utmost importance. This learning is a combination of cloud and cybersecurity; hence, cloud engineers must hone their skills in both these streams of study.
   
• API and web services-cloud infrastructure relies on APIs and web services to integrate applications on the internet. Gaining an understanding of XML, SOAP, WSDL, and other standard services will work in your favor to get a well-paid job.
   
• Cloud service providers-It is very important to understand the cloud service providers when venturing into the cloud computing stream. Understanding their practices concerning various services like computing, storage, database, migration, and other services is imperative. There are various cloud service providers, with the top names being AWS, Microsoft, and Google. You must spend time understanding the offerings of these players and their USPs if you are taking the career path of cloud computing. 

Conclusion

Having understood the critical skills required for becoming a cloud engineer, finding and using resources to gain knowledge and expertise in this field is essential. Many resources can enable you to learn cloud and hence be helpful in your journey of becoming a cloud engineer. Cloud computing training and certification are the perfect options when considering the various skills required to become a successful cloud engineer. Attaining a cloud computing certification differentiates your profile and will give you an edge to become a sought-after cloud engineer in a highly competitive job landscape. The training and certification will assist you in getting in-depth knowledge of cloud computing. They will also enable you to master various concepts of the cloud that will help you make your way into a long and successful cloud engineering career.

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Original article source at: https://www.mygreatlearning.com

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Multi-cloud Spending: 8 Tips To Lower Cost

A multi-cloud approach is nothing but leveraging two or more cloud platforms for meeting the various business requirements of an enterprise. The multi-cloud IT environment incorporates different clouds from multiple vendors and negates the dependence on a single public cloud service provider. Thus enterprises can choose specific services from multiple public clouds and reap the benefits of each.

Given its affordability and agility, most enterprises opt for a multi-cloud approach in cloud computing now. A 2018 survey on the public cloud services market points out that 81% of the respondents use services from two or more providers. Subsequently, the cloud computing services market has reported incredible growth in recent times. The worldwide public cloud services market is all set to reach $500 billion in the next four years, according to IDC.

By choosing multi-cloud solutions strategically, enterprises can optimize the benefits of cloud computing and aim for some key competitive advantages. They can avoid the lengthy and cumbersome processes involved in buying, installing and testing high-priced systems. The IaaS and PaaS solutions have become a windfall for the enterprise’s budget as it does not incur huge up-front capital expenditure.

However, cost optimization is still a challenge while facilitating a multi-cloud environment and a large number of enterprises end up overpaying with or without realizing it. The below-mentioned tips would help you ensure the money is spent wisely on cloud computing services.

• Deactivate underused or unattached resources

Most organizations tend to get wrong with simple things which turn out to be the root cause for needless spending and resource wastage. The first step to cost optimization in your cloud strategy is to identify underutilized resources that you have been paying for.

Enterprises often continue to pay for resources that have been purchased earlier but are no longer useful. Identifying such unused and unattached resources and deactivating it on a regular basis brings you one step closer to cost optimization. If needed, you can deploy automated cloud management tools that are largely helpful in providing the analytics needed to optimize the cloud spending and cut costs on an ongoing basis.

• Figure out idle instances

Another key cost optimization strategy is to identify the idle computing instances and consolidate them into fewer instances. An idle computing instance may require a CPU utilization level of 1-5%, but you may be billed by the service provider for 100% for the same instance.

Every enterprise will have such non-production instances that constitute unnecessary storage space and lead to overpaying. Re-evaluating your resource allocations regularly and removing unnecessary storage may help you save money significantly. Resource allocation is not only a matter of CPU and memory but also it is linked to the storage, network, and various other factors.

• Deploy monitoring mechanisms

The key to efficient cost reduction in cloud computing technology lies in proactive monitoring. A comprehensive view of the cloud usage helps enterprises to monitor and minimize unnecessary spending. You can make use of various mechanisms for monitoring computing demand.

For instance, you can use a heatmap to understand the highs and lows in computing visually. This heat map indicates the start and stop times which in turn lead to reduced costs. You can also deploy automated tools that help organizations to schedule instances to start and stop. By following a heatmap, you can understand whether it is safe to shut down servers on holidays or weekends.

#cloud computing services #all #hybrid cloud #cloud #multi-cloud strategy #cloud spend #multi-cloud spending #multi cloud adoption #why multi cloud #multi cloud trends #multi cloud companies #multi cloud research #multi cloud market

What are the benefits of cloud migration? Reasons you should migrate

The moving of applications, databases and other business elements from the local server to the cloud server called cloud migration. This article will deal with migration techniques, requirement and the benefits of cloud migration.

In simple terms, moving from local to the public cloud server is called cloud migration. Gartner says 17.5% revenue growth as promised in cloud migration and also has a forecast for 2022 as shown in the following image.

#cloud computing services #cloud migration #all #cloud #cloud migration strategy #enterprise cloud migration strategy #business benefits of cloud migration #key benefits of cloud migration #benefits of cloud migration #types of cloud migration

The Google Cloud Associate Engineer Exam

Cloud Technology is growing at an exceptional speed; Cloud Engineers have long agreed to accept the challenge of AWS and Azure certifications.

Now the cloud platform that has consistent demand is Google Cloud. Google Cloud is a niche play still, but with that comes some great salary demand.

In the meantime, Google Cloud Platform has some of the highest salaries out there for certified professionals and consistently beating out AWS the last few years.

“For the second straight year, the GCP Cloud Architect certification is associated with the highest salaries in IT. This newer credential-it launched in 2017-allows IT professionals to certify as a cloud architect on the GCP platform. It demonstrates the ability to design, develop and manage a secure, scalable and reliable cloud architecture.” -Global Knowledge Salary Survey dated Feb 2020

#google-cloud #cloud-computing #cloud-services #cloud-engineering #google-cloud-platform

Retire your tech debt: Move vSphere 5.5+ to Google Cloud VMware Engine

It can happen so easily. You get a little behind on your payments. Then you start falling farther and farther behind until it becomes almost impossible to dig yourself out of debt. Tech debt, that is.

IT incurs a lot of tech debt when it comes to keeping up infrastructure; most IT departments are already running as lean as they possibly can. Many VMware shops are in a particularly tough spot, especially if they’re still running on vSphere 5.5. If that describes you, it’s time to ask yourself how you intend to get out of this tech debt? General support for vSphere 5.5 ended back in September 2018, and technical guidance one year later. General support for 6.0 ended in March 2020, support for 6.5 ends November 15 of this year, and even the end of general support for vSphere 6.7 is only a couple of years away (November, 2022)! If you’re still running vSphere 5.5, moving to vSphere 7.0 is the right thing to do.

#hybrid & multi-cloud #google cloud platform #cloud migration #cloud #google cloud vmware engine

Becoming Cloud Native

There are few companies operating in today’s markets affected most recently as we are with the events of 2020 that have not undergone a digital transformation of some sort. Research shows that 80% of executives are accelerating plans to digitize work processes and deploy new technologies in response to the impact of COVID on the business world. The traditional model of business is undergoing radical change in an endeavour to employ digital technologies better to suit multiple purposes across a variety of sectors, and cloud native is one of the key drivers that re-architects cloud environments with the intent of adapting the means for how to deliver services. cloud native is a modern and advanced software development approach; which is why it is becoming of high importance to many companies.

Digital Transformation Risks

But moving to a new software development approach is not easy, and organizations can be slow to adopt radical change in the interests of safeguarding their market, output and business. So, to mitigate risk, organizations can take a step-by-step approach to becoming cloud native in several phases, where they can first replicate the new approach on a smaller scale inside a department/team/project architecture to test the results. If positive, it is then possible to scale the approach organization-wide continuously till the whole enterprise cloud architecture becomes cloud native. If implemented correctly, the cloud native approach supports organizations to improve speed, agility, and resilience in the app development and management process.

#cloud native #cloud #cloud computing #cloud native development #cloud-native applications