Cloud diplomacy
I’ve been working with the Cloud since 2009. My first steps were using Amazon’s S3, then CloudFront, then EC2. Back then, we were only starting to see the potential of the cloud and the vast majority of the world’s applications still ran in a data centre. These installations were managed by a team of busy IT folks and getting new infrastructure was always an uphill battle, involving the IT manager, CTO, CFO, purchase orders and approval cycles and big CapEx expenses. Being able to spin up infrastructure whenever it was required was a revolutionary change, but it took a while for the possibilities to be understood and embraced.
In 2015, I spearheaded my then company’s first-wave cloud migration. In it, we took all of our existing web applications and supporting tools and re-engineered them to take advantage of the AWS cloud. We leveraged CloudFormation to build our infrastructure. We migrated our MySQL databases to Aurora with the Amazon Database Migration Service. We went from static web and application servers to Elastic Beanstalk, embracing CI/CD pipelines along the way.
Internally, I advocated for DevOps, Agile and 12-Factor app principles, all of which represented significant cultural change for an organisation that was used to big bang deploys of monolithic apps, waterfall projects and managing work via spreadsheets. I learned that as important as having a vision for change is, it’s equally important to be able to engage others in that vision. Without being able to inspire others to think differently, all change programs will flounder.
Today I am working as a Cloud Solutions Architect for AC3. The nice thing about this role is that it allows me to do the kind of advocacy for cloud that I did for that one company for many companies. The challenges I find are often similar — legacy systems that were designed long before the possibilities of Cloud were understood, but also legacy cultures and beliefs. As someone wise once said “the technology is easy, it’s the people that are hard”, so I find a lot of what I do today is talk to customers about how to rethink what they’re doing.
Just moving your existing applications to the cloud may save you some money (or it might not), but you won’t experience the full benefit of how the Cloud has changed IT forever unless you fully embrace the paradigm shift it has ushered in. There is a level of diplomacy required to build the partnerships and trust required to make that shift, because unless you bring the people along with you, you won’t succeed.
Which brings me to the point of this post — the APN Ambassador program.
In February I became an APN Ambassador. This program recognises individuals who have a history of advocacy for the AWS Cloud and the transformative potential it brings. Membership brings with it some “behind the curtain” access to what AWS is doing to further entrench its leadership in the Cloud market, so it’s a great opportunity for me to grow alongside AWS.
The benefits to customers of AWS partners (like AC3) who engage with this program is that you are working with a team who not only are passionate about the transformative potential of the Cloud, but who have also demonstrated that commitment in a concrete way, and are able to access the best and most up-to-date information about what the AWS Cloud can do for you and your business (and the people in it!).
Get in touch with us today if you’d like help on your Cloud journey — helping you to benefit from the AWS Cloud is what we do!
