“Cloud is about how you do computing, not where you do computing”

– Paul Maritz

I never imagined I would invest any resources or time in writing a blog. It always seemed as if Reddit and Youtube videos came crashing in and that was the end of them. Maybe some hobby blogs survived, but that was it – my world was rather small. Here’s some background.

I have always been techy. Growing up, life was tech and sports for me. I was either tinkering with some new software on my computer (video games are software right?) or outside playing sports in the beating sun. I remember being as young as 13 and reading cnet.com tech articles on the daily. Yet somehow I decided to go to university to study business. Go figure.

I ended up steering my ship back towards technology with a Master’s in Business Information Management where it came alive again for me. Throughout the year, I pondered on my eventual career path and at the end of that brainstorming session, it came down to one thing: the cloud. The cloud was a buzzword, but also very relevant to all I was studying. I was fascinated with how incredibly quick it was growing, its widespread impact, and how it all worked under the hood. This revolution in highly available, instantly accessible and pay for only what you need compute was remarkable.

With my new-found joy in the revelation of some direction, came the upsetting realization that while I had exposure to the business, strategy, and management side of the equation; I lacked the technical skills. That is when I found DevOps – a cultural philosophy with a specialized toolset for automation in the cloud. I had found my entry point. 

Then I found Devoteam (my employer). Here I was given the space to train for months on end with the guidance I needed to bring my technical skills up-to-date. It was in this period where I found out how unbelievably useful blogs are. People in the industry helped me understand complex topics, gave simple tips to improve my workflow, and walked me through working the myriad of technologies and toolings necessary for continuous integration and continuous delivery/deployment of software applications. 

So that leads me to the present. Looking up at this mountain of an industry that seems to be continually gaining height and width with a hungry bear in the rear-view mirror looking to devour your career if you stop climbing. But that’s also what I enjoy so much. There’s always more to learn, most of it is free, and it all reinforces the skills you already have! And the bear makes sure I don’t get lazy. 

I have been blessed to find a career that feels more like a hobby. So I want to use this platform to share the useful and awesome things I learn in an accessible way. It will be a place to bring together the highlights of my week, in a manner that hopefully benefits you and makes you even more excited about the cloud. 

So I hope that as my knowledge increases, and hopefully my writing skills, you get to benefit from it. And perhaps I can help you solve a bug or 2 😉

Ow, last fun fact: this blog was going to be called ‘Cloudy Caleb’, but my roommate heard the name and just laughed. Happy he did.

So welcome to Cloud with Caleb…with me, Caleb 😀