I had a really good talk with Chirag Nayyar sir on how beginners can get started with Cloud.

I learnt a lot in the two hour session, so I summarized the key points into a two minute read.

Getting Started with Cloud

Sir strongly believes in a bottom to top approach.

  • Focus on the fundamentals
    • Networking
    • Relational Databases (SQL)
    • Storage
    • Compute
  • Choose ANY Cloud Platform. (They all have a generous free tier.)
  • Explore the platform.
  • Understand their services. (Co-relate with your foundational knowledge.)
  • Buy a domain.
  • Make a portfolio.

Important Concepts

  • Networking
  • Relational Databases (SQL)
  • Storage
  • Compute
  • Virtualization (Need & role)
  • Understand ‘Software Defined Everything’.
  • Know the purposes of services.

General Tips

  • Don’t follow too many resources.
  • Build a strong foundation.
  • Grow step by step.
  • Nothing is a race.
  • Build things that you like and try to test them in other environments.
  • Try and fail as soon as possible.
  • Share your learning with the community.
  • Own a domain and an e-mail with it.
  • Your portfolio site does not have to be the most beautiful one out there.
  • Put a target date (may be months).
  • Reddit and StackOverflow are gold mines.
  • Certifications don’t matter. Only the official ones matter and in the case of cloud they have a certain validity, so do them at the right time and use them properly. Learn, don’t run after certificates.

Connect with Chirag sir

Watch the session.

Connect with Chirag sir via LinkedIn and Twitter.

Sir also has his own YouTube Channel ‘Chirag Nayyar - Data Center on Cloud’ and web site ‘dconcloud.com’.