If I were evaluating a new tech startup, I would want their offering to embrace three key things. First, their solution needs to be cloud-agnostic. Second, it must take advantage of cloud-native offerings for scaling and flexibility. Third, it has to be SaaS with customer data staying resident. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Website: https://nedinthecloud.com Pluralsight: https://app.pluralsight.com/profile/author/edward-bell...
Sep 24, 2021•10 min•Ep 12•Transcript available on Metacast Most research points to a multi-medium experience when you are trying to learn a new concept. Audio, reading, video, and tactile experiences all work together to increase retention. After attending the Author Summit for Pluralsight, I have a fresh perspective on how to improve my content and a renewed drive to do so. Expect to see some great stuff coming soon! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Website: https://nedinthecloud.com ...
Sep 24, 2021•10 min•Ep 11•Transcript available on Metacast Attending my first in-person event since the start of the pandemic, I am struck by how much better it is than a virtual conference. It isn't just the Zoom burnout that I was already feeling. There is something about meeting people in person. A natural, organic formation of dynamic groups exchanging ideas in real time. You cannot recreate it in a virtual space, and for that reason I don't think in-person events are going anywhere. ------------------------------------------------------------------...
Sep 22, 2021•9 min•Ep 10•Transcript available on Metacast Two things that I need to work on are brevity and efficiency. I need to become ruthless in paring back my instruction to the essentials and become more efficient with my word choice. These are some of the things I am thinking about as I attend this year's Pluralsight Author Summit in SLC. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Website: https://nedinthecloud.com Pluralsight: https://app.pluralsight.com/profile/author/edward-bellavance...
Sep 21, 2021•8 min•Ep 9•Transcript available on Metacast I started a Patreon to offset the opportunity cost of my YouTube channel content, but it didn't really work out. So I am retiring the Patreon in favor of pursuing sponsorship opportunities. Check out my thoughts on why Patreon didn't work for me and why I started it in the first place. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Website: https://nedinthecloud.com Pluralsight: https://app.pluralsight.com/profile/author/edward-bellavance Gi...
Sep 15, 2021•10 min•Ep 8•Transcript available on Metacast When I see a long screed about how people are using a term or concept incorrectly, I wonder what that post says about the person who wrote it. Chances are it doesn't say anything kind. Pedantry has long been used as a form of gatekeeping in the technical world and beyond, and whether or not you intended it that way doesn't matter. Exercise some empathy and keep your "well, actually" to yourself. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------...
Sep 15, 2021•10 min•Ep 7•Transcript available on Metacast Books have been written on this topic and I don't think I'll cover all the pertinent pieces here, but I've assembled a few thoughts. For starters, try asking other people in your field what they charge. Next ask yourself how much you need to make off a deal to hit your revenue goal. Third, ask your potential client what their budget is and see if they'll share. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Website: https://nedinthecloud.com...
Sep 13, 2021•11 min•Ep 6•Transcript available on Metacast There are some situations where I would rather do a job for free than do it at a discount. Free can build goodwill and social capital. Doing it at a steep discount fails to build the goodwill and sets a ceiling on your market value. Demand what you're worth or do it for free, but don't do it for cheap. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/nedinthecloud Website: https://nedinthecloud.com Pluralsight:...
Sep 10, 2021•10 min•Ep 5•Transcript available on Metacast Worried about AI or ML taking your job? Don't. Because organizations are made up of people, and people do incredibly weird things with technology. Things that an AI would struggle to understand. But you know who does understand? You, a fellow human. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/nedinthecloud Website: https://nedinthecloud.com Pluralsight: https://app.pluralsight.com/profile/author/edward-bel...
Sep 09, 2021•11 min•Ep 4•Transcript available on Metacast As much as I enjoy the summer, after a while I crave the structure of the autumn. Children go back to school. Bedtimes get a little earlier. And I can feel myself becoming more productive. This year in particular, with the additional disruption of the pandemic and frankly ludicrous weather patterns, I am craving structure and predictability. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/nedinthecloud Website...
Sep 08, 2021•10 min•Ep 3•Transcript available on Metacast There was an interesting blog post, more of a rant really, that dug into some problems with the modern DevOps movement. Many of the central points resonated with me, but I also got some "back in my day" vibes I found concerning. Here are my thoughts on nostalgia, personal experience, and statistical analysis. Blog post: https://matduggan.com/operations-is-not-developer-it/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Patreon: https://www.p...
Sep 03, 2021•11 min•Ep 2•Transcript available on Metacast Looks like people have some strong feelings about salary sharing! Well, I kind of knew that. But I have to say, this is the most feedback I've ever received from an episode of the Daily Check-In. I thought I would go over some of that feedback and share some additional thoughts I've had on the topic. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/nedinthecloud Website: https://nedinthecloud.com Pluralsight: h...
Sep 02, 2021•12 min•Ep 1•Transcript available on Metacast Should you share your salary with your coworkers? What is the impact on yourself for doing so? Is it all a zero sum game where you have to get yours, or can the pie get bigger for everyone? There's yet another tweetstorm about the idea, and I thought I would work through my feelings on the topic in this episode. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/nedinthecloud Website: https://nedinthecloud.com Pl...
Aug 31, 2021•12 min•Ep 16•Transcript available on Metacast You keep saying best practices. I do not think it means, what you think it means. When it comes to best practices, chances are you're going to get a generalized set of recommendations that may or may not suit your technical and business environment. What do you do with that information? How do you actually set up best practices? And who was that masked man? Will's blog post: https://willgallego.com/2021/08/14/rethinking-best-practices/ ------------------------------------------------------------...
Aug 30, 2021•10 min•Ep 15•Transcript available on Metacast Many of you are bloggers or have written tech tutorials. Explaining concepts and ideas is hard! Writing with clarity and economy is something that I have struggled with, and I am constantly trying to improve. I recently read an article from Julia Evans that includes a list of 13 patterns to avoid when writing. I've definitely done all of them, and now that I have a list I hope to avoid them in the future! Julia's post: https://jvns.ca/blog/confusing-explanations/ --------------------------------...
Aug 27, 2021•11 min•Ep 14•Transcript available on Metacast I have three pillars that I try to practice professionally and personally: embrace discomfort, plan to fail, and be kind. The last one used to be "be nice", but I have recently revised it based on feedback from a friend. What is the difference between nice and kind? And what does that have to do with empathy? That is the topic of today's episode. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/nedinthecloud We...
Aug 26, 2021•11 min•Ep 13•Transcript available on Metacast The esteemed Ethan Banks ran a survey about how IT Pros are learning today. The survey is still going, so you can check it out now and leave your response! I thought I would run through the questions and my reaction to the answers so far. Here's the blog post from Ethan. And the survey itself. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/nedinthecloud Website: https://nedinthecloud.com Pluralsight: https://...
Aug 25, 2021•10 min•Ep 12•Transcript available on Metacast I was a panelist for the Tech Field Day Extra portion of #NGINXSprint 2.0. During the past two days I learned a lot of cool stuff about what NGINX has been doing and where they are going. I thought I would share my thoughts with you! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/nedinthecloud Website: https://nedinthecloud.com Pluralsight: https://app.pluralsight.com/profile/author/edward-bellavance GitHub: ...
Aug 25, 2021•12 min•Ep 11•Transcript available on Metacast We get so caught up in the hustle culture, sometimes we forget the reason we're doing this. The hustle is not the end, it's a means to an end. We need to recognize when we get there, and remember to enjoy it. Otherwise you're just caught in the hamster wheel of sadness, and no one want that. Not even hamsters. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/nedinthecloud Website: https://nedinthecloud.com Plur...
Aug 23, 2021•11 min•Ep 10•Transcript available on Metacast When you're developing course content on a constantly evolving technology, it can be a real challenge to keep things up to date. Is there a better way? Do you prefer tightly-couple course modules or loosely-coupled courses where content can be swapped out. I'm curious to hear from YOU dear listener on what works for you! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/nedinthecloud Website: https://nedintheclo...
Aug 20, 2021•10 min•Ep 9•Transcript available on Metacast I thought I would do a check-in with myself and see how this whole Ned in the Cloud LLC endeavor is going. The short answer is that things are going well and I've got a solid plan for the next 6-9 months. Honestly, I feel like planning beyond that is almost an exercise in futility. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/nedinthecloud Website: https://nedinthecloud.com Pluralsight: https://app.pluralsi...
Aug 20, 2021•10 min•Ep 8•Transcript available on Metacast When a process moves to a cloud environment, it's probably time to evaluate whether the process still makes sense. This is especially true of security, where you have so many more options when it comes to managing network and application security. Don't just look at the process, look at the intention behind the process and aim to solve for that. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/nedinthecloud Web...
Aug 18, 2021•10 min•Ep 7•Transcript available on Metacast One or my frustrations with open source projects and vendor products is a lack of clear communication and simplicity in getting started. The copy on most websites should be burned and those ashes thrown into the sun. Don't give me empty platitudes and vapid buzzwords. Tell me what your product does, and what problem it will solve for me. Be specific. Then help me test it out quickly with minimal friction. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------...
Aug 17, 2021•11 min•Ep 6•Transcript available on Metacast In June of 2009, IE had 65% market share. In July of 2021 it has less than 1%, with Microsoft's replacement Edge only holding 3.5%. What was once the dominant force in the browser wars has declined into irrelevance. What lessons can we learn from IE's slide into obscurity? Statscounter data: https://gs.statcounter.com/browser-market-share#monthly-200901-202107 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/ne...
Aug 16, 2021•11 min•Ep 5•Transcript available on Metacast There are so many different communities and platforms out there, it's really hard to focus on a narrow few. But if you don't prioritize, then you can't focus on anything at more than a surface level. I've been thinking about how I engage with different communities and I need to make some difficult decisions on where to engage and where to cut ties. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/nedinthecloud ...
Aug 06, 2021•9 min•Ep 4•Transcript available on Metacast Sit right down and I'll tell you a tale of bad assumptions, unintended consequences, and incomplete troubleshooting. It's a story of mice, manuals, and one man lived through it all. That man? It me. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/nedinthecloud Website: https://nedinthecloud.com Pluralsight: https://app.pluralsight.com/profile/author/edward-bellavance GitHub: https://github.com/ned1313...
Aug 04, 2021•11 min•Ep 3•Transcript available on Metacast As a follow-up to yesterday's episode, we are going to take a look the financial and operational models enabled by cloud outposts. It's not just AWS and Azure get in on the action either. We've got the traditional OEMs honing in with their hardware as a service. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/nedinthecloud Website: https://nedinthecloud.com Pluralsight: https://app.pluralsight.com/profile/auth...
Aug 04, 2021•11 min•Ep 2•Transcript available on Metacast There was an interesting article from The Next Platform that looked at data from IDC and other sources on the sales of cloud outpost hardware. What is this cloud outpost thing? In this episode, I'll give you some background on AWS Outposts and Azure Stack and why they matter for the cloud outpost tsunami. The Next Platform post: https://www.nextplatform.com/2021/07/30/spending-on-cloud-outposts-is-climbing-the-hockey-stick/ Architecting IT post on HCI: https://www.architecting.it/blog/hci-market...
Aug 02, 2021•11 min•Ep 1•Transcript available on Metacast Two big thoughts in today's check-in. First, if someone asks you to create content for your company or organization, then they should be paying you for it. Second, content creators who aren't working in the field need to listen to those that are. Blog post: https://www.stephaniemorillo.co/post/the-unpaid-labor-that-drives-tech-forward ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/nedinthecloud Website: https...
Jul 30, 2021•10 min•Ep 14•Transcript available on Metacast One of the things I've learned in my career is there's too much to hold in your head at one time. You will forget commands, and arguments, and syntax. And that's fine. You can always look it up. In fact, I encourage you to look it up! Programming shouldn't be an RPG. Bonus points if you get the mc chris reference. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/nedinthecloud Website: https://nedinthecloud.com ...
Jul 29, 2021•10 min•Ep 13•Transcript available on Metacast 
