So here we are at Day 2 already, apart from having a pretty busy day at work and missing a User Group I was meaning to join tonight I did manage to squeeze in a bit of dedicated time to have a think about the direction I would like the next part of my journey to go in.

Had some good quick chats in the 100DaysOfCloud Discord, managed to have a few conversations with some great new connections on LinkedIn and probably managed a good 5-6 hours straight glued to a telephone today at work so am ready for a cider and some Married at first sight Australia……. damn did I just write that?!

So where am I going? What is my drive toward in new cloud learnings?

Back in the days before I got into Consultancy I did used to do a bit of Dev work, mainly with C# and .NET and Web Design, I dabbled a bit in windows app design but back about 9-10 years ago I could find my way around Visual Studio without too much trouble, but kind of went a bit rusty due to a change in career direction. One I wouldn’t change for the world I might add, I love the Constant change and opportunity working in Consultancy and Architecture can bring, I love helping customers make sense of new technology as it happens, but I think we can safely say there is more to it than that

Over the last few years as Cloud adoption has become more prevalent and Digital Transformation is starting to become more widespread and generally understood as more and more businesses know what it truly means, its evidently clear that Tech Intensity is well and truly amongst us. During this time I have had a longing to keep my core infrastructure skills and map them over to Azure (Multi-cloud is on the table, but not just yet for me), I have had a longing to move more into the IOT/AI/ML/Big Data sphere, and as much as my current role doesn’t specifically call for me to work in that space, as an IT Pro I have kept up to speed with the ‘goings on’ in these areas at a high level.

I spent some time really thinking about the path I want to really get to know, and yes this is really to get back to a bit of my roots with Development, and really get under the hood with DevOps, so I’ve bought the book that keeps on giving:

• DevOps for Dummies! Ok no comment on the hair and glassess, the dog chewed mine so am using my other half’s and well, don’t we all still have covid hair?

Anyhow, with this being by my side for the next week or so as I read through it I’ve set myself up with a target over the coming months to focus my efforts in the following areas:

• Terraform
• Ansible
• Python
• Docker
• IoT
• AI
• ML

I’m sure during the next few posts I will let you all know how I am getting on trawling through this mountain of information and I’m hopeful that I can truly demonstrate the creative benefits my hopefully new found Dev skills will enable and how I can bring that back to couple it with my existing Azure and 365 knowledge.

Here is a selection of a few more books that I shall have as hand as I work through this.

• 

• 

• 

My intentions are to work my way back through some of the Terraform Learning modules, probably get myself an Ansible book and have a dabble with making the two work together to do some stuff. Throughout this, gem up on my DevOps theory, race through the Python and Docker books before I move onto the Smart Cities concepts and try and get my Raspberry Pi’s writing to and from Azure IoT Hub with a sensor kit (they I still have to buy), oh yeah, did I mention the Raspberry Pi!

Bottom line is, I think I have now set up my learning track to work through over the coming months, some of which will no doubt form part of my 100DaysOfCloud challenge. It feels exciting and daunting all at the same time, but I am really excited to get this learning kicked off.

So Day 2 done, I hope someone finds my approach an interesting one, and I’m also really keen to hear any tips or advice anyone has!

Time to start reading and move on with Day 3!!!!

100DaysOfCloud Overview

My Main ReadMe Page is all set up with a bit about me!

The guys at 100DaysofCloud have set up the GitHub repo to be cloned and also have a great repo containing ideas and areas to collaborate on: https://github.com/100DaysOfCloud/100DaysOfCloudIdeas

My Github Journey tracker can be found here: https://github.com/jonnychipz/100DaysOfCloud

Please Watch/Star my repo and feel free to comment of contribute to anything I push! I really look forward to hearing from anyone who is going to jump on the journey around the same time as me! Lets see where I get to in 100 days!

I would encourage others to jump on this journey, I’m not sure that I will be able to commit every day for 100 days, but as long as I can complete 100 days that will be great!