Getting Started in the AWS Cloud

As a systems administrator, I am constantly learning new skills to keep abreast with technology.   Upon taking a position with JHC Technology, I learned that I’d be supporting their internal Cloud environment as well as for their government client.  Hearing so much exciting news about Amazon Web Services and its Cloud computing capabilities, I couldn’t wait to get started.

My journey began with a 3 day training session that was hosted by Amazon.  There, I was able to grasp a hold of AWS and their mission to provide secure, scalable and compliant infrastructure and application services. Soon will be gone the days of purchasing thousands of dollars in equipment, obtaining and securing space for huge data farms, maintenance costs associated with a large support staff and along with updating outdated equipment.  Within an instance, an entire development environment can be deployed according to a client’s specific need and ready to go within the hour. 

I was introduced to terminologies such as “elasticity” and “scalability” - two key factors in a Cloud environment which allow a business to scale up or down according to its need and to pay only for what is used.   A Cloud environment also allows for a global reach within minutes as opposed to the weeks or even months it would take to deploy such an environment in the past.  I also learned the correlation between traditional Windows administration and that of a Cloud environment. 

After working with a Windows platform for so many years, the correlation between that and AWS was very similar.  Much of my knowledge of Windows based platforms translated over the Cloud environment and I didn’t have to start from scratch.  I learned about the AWS management consoles, such as AWS Management Console and Elastic Wolf, that provide a one stop shop for all of your administrative needs.  From creating accounts for AWS management to spinning up instances to support an entire domain, this can be done from one location and there’s no need for application hopping.

I was also able to create my very own AWS account.  The account provides access to various tutorials, labs and a plethora of tools, such as EC2 that is used to create virtual servers in the Cloud, VPC for isolated Cloud resources, and Cloud Front, S3 and Glacier to manage storing content and delivery.

With further training, I now support a cloud environment for a government client.  I supply on demand Cloud administration and work closely with our client to design, deploy and support future Cloud solutions. 

Jeronna Freeman  is the Cloud Administrator for JHC Technology.  She can be reached at jfreeman(at)jhctechnology.com or connect with her on LinkedIn.