John D. Allen

One way to secure your Application running in a Cloud is to obscure the fact that it's IN a Cloud! Using an ADC running somewhere outside of your Cloud (IE> Data Center, CoLo, etc.), set up the Virtual IP / SLB and have the ADC use Tunnels (IE> IPIP, VXLAN, etc.) to tunnel into the Cloud down to the Application VMs/Container/Pods/etc. Hackers will only see the IP Address of the ADC, which will tell them it's NOT on a Public Cloud, when in fact, the guts of the Application is in fact running in a Public Cloud!

I have a couple of customers that use Cloud in the following way: * Once they have decided to create an Application, they create it in a Public Cloud. * They work out the bugs/issues/Architecture flaws/Operational issues/etc. in that Public Cloud * Once they have a handle on how it all works, and have figured out how to Operate and Maintain the Application.... * They move it back into their On-Prem Cloud where they feel they can save money by operating/maintaining the Infrastructure themselves. The biggest advantage about Public Cloud is that it takes almost no time to spin up the Infrastructure to operate an Application...but long term, it seems to be cheaper to Repatriate the Application into your own Data Center Cloud.

Whenever someone mentions editing, the immortal words of Hemmingway spring to mind: "Write drunk, edit sober" ;) (btw, I have tried this, but I found that my writing became very long and verbose when I came back to edit it.) A better way to remember this is: Write now, edit later. When I write something, I always take a break, sleep on it, whatever -- just get away from it and get your brain thinking about something else. When I get back to editing/revising, I have a fresher look on it, and many times decided this section or that is garbage and try again. DO edit your writing. DON'T try to be a perfectionist. I'm never really happy about what I write, but if I'm getting my info across, making my points, then its good enough.

You don't have to start at the beginning and write to the end. When I write an article or post, I almost always start in the middle, then do the conclusion, then comeback and work on the intro/beginning. By the time I have written the middle and ending, the beginning pretty much suggests itself.

Just like any skill, practice makes perfect. When I started writing for PC Week many moons ago, my editor called me up after I sent him my first article. "So...you haven't done much writing, have you?" ;) he suggested I start writing every day -- even if it didn't make much sense. Write about what I was thinking about. Write about the weather. Write about how my sports team did this week....whatever came to mind. After a few months of this, he started accepting my articles on the first go-around (whereas the ones before required rewrites...sometimes it took eight or more!)

A question I always ask prospective Cloud Engineers is: "How do you learn?" This tends to throw some people off, I guess because they have never thought much about this. Cloud is an ever-changing market, so the ability to learn and learn quickly is essential. Knowing how you learn best and quickest is important for Cloud interviews!